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The Lake of Albano
Historical Context
This 1790 painting of the Lake of Albano was inspired by Wright's sketches made during his Italian journey, depicting the volcanic crater lake in the Alban Hills south of Rome. Lake Albano was a favorite subject of landscape painters on the Grand Tour for its classical associations and dramatic setting. Joseph Wright of Derby's landscapes combine topographical observation with the atmospheric interests that were central to all his work. His landscapes of the Derbyshire Peak District, the Welsh mountains, and the Italian campagna are distinguished by the quality of light — natural this time, but observed with the same attention he brought to candlelight and volcanic fire. His Derbyshire landscapes participated in the emerging Romantic tradition of the British landscape as a subject of aesthetic and emotional significance, the industrial transformations of his home region (the Arkwright mills, the lead-smelting furnaces) providing material for a new kind of landscape that was simultaneously documentary and sublime.
Technical Analysis
The Italianate landscape demonstrates Wright's ability to render the warm light and expansive vistas of the Roman Campagna with atmospheric sensitivity and topographic accuracy.
Look Closer
- ◆Wright's 1790 Lake of Albano is painted with the atmospheric haze of a summer afternoon — the volcanic crater lake has a stillness that Wright captures through a nearly mirror-flat water surface.
- ◆The papal villa at Castelgandolfo on the far shore appears in warm morning or afternoon light, its architectural silhouette just distinguishable against the wooded hillside.
- ◆Wright's decade of reflection on his Italian sketches has produced a more atmospherically unified composition than the immediate sketches — memory and processing have simplified the scene's complexity.
- ◆The foreground shadow zone uses the deep warm-brown of Italian shadow — not the cool grey of English shade — reflecting Wright's specific Italian atmospheric observation.
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