About this artwork
The consummate mezzotint engraver Valentine Green created this iconic image a year after the Enlightenment-era painter Joseph Wright of Derby completed the original painting (National Gallery, London). Green’s limpid moonlit effects and riveting velvet-black ink aptly render this nocturnal scientific demonstration as a matter of life or death: the bird in the glass sphere begins to suffocate as air is pumped out of the chamber, leaving the breathless viewers uncertain of its ultimate fate.
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Status
- Currently Off View
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Department
- Prints and Drawings
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Artist
- Valentine Green (Printer)
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Title
- A Philosopher Shewing an Experiment on the Air Pump
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Origin
- England
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Date
- 1769
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Medium
- Mezzotint with traces of engraving in black on ivory laid paper
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Dimensions
- 448 × 585 mm (image/plate); 457 × 590 mm (sheet)
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Credit Line
- The Amanda S. Johnson and Marion J. Livingston Fund
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Reference Number
- 2013.1271
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IIIF Manifest
- https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/220487/manifest.json
Extended information about this artwork
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.
