The Earthstopper
Earthstopper on the Banks of the Derwent is a painting by Joseph Wright of Derby originally completed in 1773. The scene shows a man digging at nighttime beside the River Derwent in Derbyshire.
Description
The painting shows a man blocking foxholes so that a subsequent foxhunt could kill the fox without the animal having the opportunity to hide underground. This man was known as an Earthstopper.Joseph Wright was known for his studies under unusual lighting and this can be seen here combined with landscape. Wright completed few notable paintings that included landscapes before he went on his tour of Italy where he created a large number including those that showed the eruption of Vesuvias. Benedict Nicolson, who was an authority on Joseph Wright believed this painting inspired lines of poetry in a collection named after and in aid of the preservation of Needwood Forest. The lines were written by Francis Noel Clarke Mundy, who later commissioned six Wright portraits, including one of himself. These three quarter length portraits were of himself and five of his friends in the uniform of Mundy's own private hunt. Mundy's lines read:
It is apt that Wright who had based his own paintings like Miravan on literature should, in turn, inspire poetry in the group that included Erasmus Darwin and Anna Seward.