Joseph Wright The Dead Soldier Summary

This is a piece called The Dead Soldier, by Joseph Wright. Joseph Wright was an English portrait and landscape painter. He is thought of as the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution. He is also well known for his emphasis on contrast in his paintings, called the Chiaroscuro effect. He often painted figures in dark lighting illuminated by candlelight. Although he started off his career by being a portrait painter, he increasingly started to paint landscapes and the effect of natural light. Joseph Wright was notable in his time for showcasing science in his paintings, particularly the meetings of the Lunar Society, a group of influential scientists living in England. During this time, a period known as …show more content…
Judging from the date, he may be a fallen soldier from the American Revolution, but there is no actual explanation. The woman’s face is hidden and buried in the dead soldier’s hand while the baby looks off into the distance. At first glance it appears that the baby is oblivious of the situation but looking closer you can see the serene, almost stern expression on the baby’s face. The baby is the one that takes the viewer into the painting, looking out calmly to meet the viewers eyes. Both the woman and the baby are touching the soldier’s dead, greenish hand. She woman is clutching the man’s wrist while the baby is holding his hand. The inspiration for this piece was a long poem by John Langhorne dating from 1774-1777. Even though it is an 18th Century European painting, the style mirrors paintings done in the Hellenistic period of Ancient Greece. All of the figures are connected in some way, touching each other. Their connected arms and heads form an oval framing the woman and baby’s faces. The foreground of the painting is simple and the three figures are framed by a piece of cloth hanging from a tree. The figures are large in relation to the size of the picture, and they are the focal