Dovedale by Moonlight [SEP] creator
Dovedale by Moonlight
Dovedale by Moonlight, 1784, is one of five paintings by Joseph Wright of Derby which uses the picturesque valley of Dovedale as its subject. These paintings were sometimes made as pairs with one showing the view by day and the other by moonlight. Wright admitted that he had not observed this scene directly, "Moon lights & fire lights are but a sort of work with me for I cant with impunity go out at night and study the former, & the latter I have seen but once,
and at a time too, when I thought not of painting such effects."
Description.
Dovedale is a very popular dale in Staffordshire and Wright's home county of Derbyshire. Admired in Wright's time, it has been owned by the National Trust since 1924 and made available to the many Peak District visitors. Dovedale is named for the River Dove and it is long.
Wright's paintings appear to be from nature, but in a letter of 1787 he said that he had observed moonlight and firelight only