Joseph Wright of Derby - Two girls dressing a kitten by candlelight

Joseph Wright of Derby (c1768-70). Two girls dressing a kitten by candlelight. Oil painting. Kenwood House. Image source http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e4/Joseph_Wright_of_Derby._Two_Girls_Dressing_a_Kitten_by_Candlelight._c._1768-70.jpg/463px-Joseph_Wright_of_Derby._Two_Girls_Dressing_a_Kitten_by_Candlelight._c._1768-70.jpg


After tomorrow's (Tuesday) morning essay tutorials, we will return to Joseph Wright of Derby for an afternoon seminar (at 14.00-15.00). This follows our previous discussion on the painting 'An experiment on a bird in the air pump.'

The above painting, another in his series of Candlelight paintings, shows some relationship to the Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump. Here it is nature and culture (rather than specifically science) that are counterposed. (It also takes us back to last week's Arte Povera discussion, though in Wright's painting nature and culture are 'represented' as paintings rather than directly 'presented' as sculpture).

There are, as so often, many levels to Wright's work. Here we see two girls dressing an unfortunate kitten in doll's clothes. It seems a simple, even a sentimental scene. The doll lies on the table. But the kitten is not a doll: it lives. And the drama revolves around this central figure of the kitten. What are the expressions on the girls' faces? They are absorbed in their play - enjoying their play, and oblivious to any cruelty they might inflict on a kitten that is not meant (in its nature) to stand on two legs.

Or is it worse? Are these two girls enjoying the cruelty, enjoying their power?


It is a painting that raises some of the concerns of philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Is might right? Rousseau says no (2005:73). (And slavery is not founded upon nature - a radical view in an age of slavery and empire). Rousseau elevates nature - man is intrinsically good unless corrupted (Delaney 2005) (we see something of this idea - Rousseau's 'Noble Savage' - in Frankenstein's creature who suffers from a lack of love and affection but would otherwise, the monster claims, have been good).

But what is nature in Wright's painting? Obviously the kitten, at the mercy of the two girls. But the girls present a problem, since, as children, they are are closer to nature. Have they already been corrupted by society and become cruel, or is Wright (against Rousseau) implying that cruelty is part of our very nature .

The doll provides another element. Are the children also dressed up like the dolls? And is this (going against their nature) the cause of their cruelty to the kitten? It also raises the question of the difference between an 'inanimate' doll and a living kitten - and of our moral responsibility to life - a question that becomes more troubling in an increasingly scientific and secular age, and a question raised by the 'Experiment with a bird in the air pump'.

It is by any standards an unsettling painting, that questions notions of childhood 'innocence' and points to a potential for cruelty within our nature. In this sense, like other of Wright's works, the painting questions Enlightenment values, and the possibility of a reasoned and ordered society, and foreshadows Romantic concerns.

Bibliography
Delaney, JJ. (2005). Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712—1778). Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. [Online] http://www.iep.utm.edu/rousseau/ (Accessed March 14, 2011)
Joseph Wright of Derby (1768). An experiment on a bird in the air pump. Oil on Canvas 182.9x 24.3. National Gallery, London
Joseph Wright of Derby (c1768-70). Two girls dressing a kitten by candlelight. Oil on canvas. Kenwood House.
Rousseau, J-J. (2005). Selected writings. London: CRW Publishing

The painting Two girls dressing a kitten by candlelight can be viewed at Kenwood House http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/kenwood-house/ (Admission free).