Landscape with a Two-Story Building on a Hill (Smaller Italian Sketchbook, leaf 29 recto)
Medium
Graphite, brown and gray ink washes
Dimensions
Sheet: 9 3/16 x 6 3/4 in. (23.4 x 17.1 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1957
Accession Number
57.102.1(29)
Tags
Art Historical Context
Joseph Wright of Derby, a leading British artist of the Enlightenment era renowned for his dramatic candlelit scenes, created this intimate landscape sketch during his transformative Grand Tour of Italy from 1773 to 1775. Titled *Landscape with a Two- Building on a Hill*, appears on leaf 29o of his Smaller Italian Sketchbook—a personal album of rapid studies capturing the rugged beauty of the Italian countryside. Dated 1774–75, the drawing reflects Wright's keen eye for topography, with a sturdy two-story building perched dramatically on a hillside amid rolling landscapes. Executed in graphit...
About the Artist
Joseph Wright (Wright of Derby) · 1734–1797
Joseph Wright of Derby (1734–1797) was an English painter celebrated for his dramatic use of candlelight and artificial illumination, which earned him a unique position in eighteenth-century British art as the painter of the Industrial Revolution and the Enlightenment. Born in Derby in the English Midlands, he studied in London under Thomas Hudson, a leading portrait painter, before returning to D...