Focus on Dovedale by Moonlight and explain the 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 3 miles (5 km) 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 once at night and this was some time before he decided to create this series of paintings. However his preparatory sketches show that he was using a mixture of studies and chance. The unusual reversal of light and shade in the trees in the sketch of Dovedale is said to be after using techniques created by the Russian born Alexander Cozens. Wright owned paintings by Cozens who taught his students to paint landscapes. He told them to create blots on paper and then use these as inspiration for the composition.
Peak District National Trust dale River Dove Alexander Cozens Dovedale Derbyshire