#yoxall

May 19th - A bad stomach day, and a ride out late that was surprisingly good: A 40 miler up over Chasewater, Longdon, the Ridwares and Yoxall, returning through Lichfield and Weeford to home.

It was a glorious afternoon, the star of which was the languid, limpid River Trent.

Joseph Wright of Derby British, 1734–1797 The Rev. and Mrs. Thomas Gisborne, of Yoxhall Lodge, Leicestershire 1786 Oil on canvas 185.4 x 152.4 cm Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection http://collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/1665711

One more painting by Joseph Wright. He is so interesting and his work is so cool that Museum Dogs just coun’t help but go on a binge of his stuff. Read a bio of Wright and check out more of his dogs at http://museumdogs.tumblr.com/tagged/joseph_wright_of_derby. Today’s painting is a portrait of an influential man of his time and one of Wright’s friends in Derby. 

Thomas Gisborne was born into a fairly wealthy family in Derbyshire in 1758. He graduted from St. John’s College, Cambridge, where he had befriended William Wilberforce and Thomas Babington. Gisborne was something of a prodigy at college and was expected to go on to a great public career. He turned down a seat in parliament, and in 1783 he was ordained. That year he also became curate of Barton-under-Needwood  and inherited the family estate of Yoxall Lodge, Staffordshire. The next year he married Mary Babington (1760–1848), Thomas Babington’s sister, and they had six sons and two daughters. Gisborne died in 1846 at the age of 87.[1]

Gisborne, his brother-in-law Thomas Babington, and his college pal William Wilberforce were at the forefront of the antislavery movement in Britain. They were the central figures in the Clapham Sect, a group of Evangelical Anglicans who supported the abolition of slavery, missionary work, social reform, philanthropy, and moral values. (At least one scholar cites the Clapham Sect as being instrumental in the development of Victorian morality in the nineteenth century.) Gisborne wrote a number of influential books on moral and spiritual matters, poetry, and science, including An Enquiry into the Duties of the Female Sex (1797) and two books condemning science-based geology in favor of a biblical approach to the subject. His writings are readily available on the internet: http://tinyurl.com/qxnwoyc. Gisborne was was also an amateur artist and botanist, sincerely interested in natural history and ornithology.[2]  

One of Gisborne’s friends was William Gilpin, champion of the picturesque style in art and literature and a clergyman of quite a different stripe than Gisborne.[3] Gilpin wrote to a friend in 1792 that Gisborne

“is an ingenious man; & of so much simplicity of character, that he takes with me exceedingly. You can enter his mind without lock or key. He is a man of considerable fortune; but went into orders, not with any view of preferment, but merely, as it appears to me, to have a better pretence to be serious . . .”[4]

Gilpin probably meant his last comment as a compliment (as in, Gisborne chose serious intellectual and spiritual pursuits over an easy life or a political career), but to modern sensibilities, it does have a somewhat snarky undertone (as in Gisborne chose to be a clergyman because he thought it gave him more gravitas). Harriet, Countess Granville, encountered Gisborne at a house party and was much more flip about him; she descibed the reverend as looking like “an itinerant preacher, with eyes that squint inward, and a mouth that constantly grins outward, and a head combed . . . comme un artichaut renversé [like an upside-down artichoke].”  HAH! She goes on to say in the letter, however, that the gentlemen of the party—presumably including Gisborne—were a lot of fun, cracking jokes and laughing.[5] (Countess Granville’s letters are fun and well worth reading; the lady sounds like she was a real gas.)

Joseph Wright was a good friends with Gisborne, and he painted a number of pictures for him. They first met in 1777 when Wright was commissioned to paint Gisborne in his academic robes. In 1786, Wright made the the double portrait of the Gisbornes and a pair of landscapes. Two years later, Gisborne commisioned Wright to paint one of his famous views of Mount Vesuvius erupting (Wright made dozens of versions of that scene). Wright gave Gisborne a number of other paintings and drawings over the years as well, including a self-portrait.  One scholar cites Wright’s friendship with Gisborne as “one of the bright spots in a melancholy life”—meaning Wright’s life. Whether or not that assessment is accurate, the two men had a really solid friendship. They would even go sketching (both at Yoxall Lodge and elsewhere; in 1793, they went on a sketching tour of the Lake District) and play flute duets together.[6] A bromance for the ages!

Wright made the double portrait of the Gisbornes two years after the couple married, when Thomas was twenty-eight and Mary was twenty-six. The portfolio in Gisborne’s lap is a nod to his artistic pursuits. He wears sober, clerical black that stands out against his wife’s leaf-green dress. She rather blends in with the landscape, obviously supportive of and important to her husband but also decidedly secondary. She holds a green umbrella that covers both of them, which calls to mind something about wifely duties and nurturing, protective love. They look like a very happy and well-suited couple, and by all accounts they were intelligent and kind people. Still, I can’t help but think that they look kind of insufferable—overly goody-goody in a smug sort of way.  

Bringing some much-needed canine realness to the scene is a fine greyhound. She probably underscores the theme of fidelity (in this case, marital), which is appropriate for the painting. Symbolism aside, she is a lovely dog with a soft tan coat. She looks up at Mary with gentle admiration (perhaps reflecting Thomas’s appreciation for his wife) and a subtle plea for attention. HELLO I AM HERE I WOULD APPRECIATE SOME PATS IF YOU ARE INCLINED TO GIVE THEM AND MAYBE A TREAT IF IT ISN’T TOO MUCH TROUBLE DON’T GO OUT OF YOUR WAY BUT I WILL JUST STAND HERE IN CASE YOU WANT TO PAT ME. 

Notes ________________________________ 1. Wikipedia, “Thomas Gisborne,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gisborne.

2. Wikipedia, “Thomas Gisborne”; “Clapham Sect,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapham_Sect; Christie’s, “Joseph Wright of Derby, A.R.A. (Derby 1734–1797); View in Dovedale, Derbyshire; and View of the  Convent of San Cosimato and Part of the  Claudian Aquaduct Near Vicovaro in the Roman Campagna,” Lot 41, Sale 7413, Important Old Master and British Pictures (London: July 5, 2007), http://tinyurl.com/l9kezw4.

3. Austenonly (blog), “Jane Austen’s People: Thomas Gisborne,” blog post (December 8, 2009), http://tinyurl.com/nyd9yat. 

4. Quoted in The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, vol. 107, no. 1 (1965), p. 60.

5. Harriet, Countess Granville, to Lady G. Morpeth, October 31, 1811, in Letters of Harriet, Countess Granville, 1810–1845, Volume 1, F. Leveson Gower, ed. (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1894), p. 27, https://archive.org/details/cu31924088004175.

Westwing Countryside Cottage, Yoxall, Peak District (Ref 904435)

Description: Westwing is a comfortable, semi-detached cottage set on the owner's farming land, one mile from the village of Yoxall in Staffordshire. With one double bedroom with en-suite shower room and walk-in wardrobe, this cottage sleeps two people. There's also a kitchen with breakfast bar, a shared external utility and a sitting room with a gas fire and dining area. Outside is a shared…

April 22nd - The long Good Friday.

I start many journeys into the Peak District with a run up the A515 Ashbourne Road from Lichfield to Sudbury. This may seem an odd thing to do, but it's a lovely road, and is fairly straight and direct. When I'm exploring far away, I prefer to get there as quickly as I can - there's plenty of time for the quiet byways near home on shorter runs. The A515 passes through delightful villages, serious hills, two rivers and a fantastic downhill through Draycott.