An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump is a painting by Joseph Wright of Derby (An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump). Painted in 1768, oil paint on canvas, it serves to express the Industrial Revolution (An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump). The painting’s dimensions are 183 centimeters tall and 244 centimeters wide (An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump). This paper’s purpose will be to analyze and interpret not only Wright’s art, but his life and era as well in an effort to determine if this painting is a reference towards governmental/monarchist power. When one looks at An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump one is almost immediately drawn to the man in the center; this man is the painting’s focal point. Wright drew this man
…show more content…
This character’s hands are poised above two places in this household setting. One hand is above a large glass container/vial connected to an air pump which has entrapped a bird. Meanwhile, the other hand is poised above a handle/lever attached to the air pump. This mechanism is centered in the painting as well as the table in which it has been placed surrounded by nine other individuals. In these other people’s faces and composure we sense an emotion about them. These nine people are of several different age groups and genders in the same household. The viewers can see a man comforting his children while trying to gain their attention back towards the container, a man deep in thought pondering something, a man who is in a stern stance, hands on hips with elbows directed towards the ceiling staring directly at the glass and its content being the bird, a younger man/boy whom is bent over slightly as if to get a better view of the events commencing in the vial above the table, two young people, one man, one woman, staring not at the container nor the bird, but at each other, and lastly, a young boy, not at the table with the others, but instead at the window drawing the curtain shut from the outside world for privacy. Now that one has had time to review the details of this artistic work we shall discuss the artist
This character’s hands are poised above two places in this household setting. One hand is above a large glass container/vial connected to an air pump which has entrapped a bird. Meanwhile, the other hand is poised above a handle/lever attached to the air pump. This mechanism is centered in the painting as well as the table in which it has been placed surrounded by nine other individuals. In these other people’s faces and composure we sense an emotion about them. These nine people are of several different age groups and genders in the same household. The viewers can see a man comforting his children while trying to gain their attention back towards the container, a man deep in thought pondering something, a man who is in a stern stance, hands on hips with elbows directed towards the ceiling staring directly at the glass and its content being the bird, a younger man/boy whom is bent over slightly as if to get a better view of the events commencing in the vial above the table, two young people, one man, one woman, staring not at the container nor the bird, but at each other, and lastly, a young boy, not at the table with the others, but instead at the window drawing the curtain shut from the outside world for privacy. Now that one has had time to review the details of this artistic work we shall discuss the artist