Sketch of a Female Nude Resembling the Medici Venus (Smaller Italian Sketchbook, leaf 20 recto)
Medium
Graphite, brush and green wash
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(20)
Tags
Art Historical Context
In 1774–75, during his Grand Tour of Italy, English artist Joseph Wright of Derby—renowned for his dramatic candlelit scenes and Enlightenment themes—filled sketchbooks with studies of classical antiquities. This intimate drawing from his Smaller Italian Sketchbook captures a female nude echoing the Venus de' Medici, the Hellenistic marble statue in Florence's Uffizi Gallery. Wright journey immersed him in Italy's artistic heritage, fueling his lifelong fascination with light, form, and the natural world. Rendered in graphite with subtle brush and green wash on a modest 9 3/16 x 6 3/4 in. she...
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...