An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump

1768

Oil on canvas, 183 × 244 cm. The National Gallery, London

One candle the viewer cannot see, hidden behind a glass on the table, lights a ring of faces.

The National Gallery traces colors darkening with distance: the lecturer's robe is "salmon pink in the candlelight", then magenta farther off.
Lighting this forceful, the Gallery says, was "new in British art".

Concepts

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain