An experiment on a bird in an air pump: a philosopher is demonstrating the formation of a vacuum by withdrawing air from a flask containing a white cockatoo. Mezzotint by V. Green, 1769, after J. Wright of Derby.

Benedict Nicolson's title : An experiment on a bird in the air pump

[London] : J. Boydell excudit, 1769.

1 print : mezzotint ; sheet 47.4 x 58.9 cm

A philosopher shewing an experiment on the air pump. From the original picture painted by Mr Joseph Wright. Joseph Wright pinxit. Valentine Green del. et fecit.

Alfred Whitman, Valentine Green, London: A.H. Bullen, 1902, p. 126 no. 167 (as "Air pump, the. After Joseph Wright. A family grouped around a table in a room ; a philosopher is experimenting with an air-pump and has a parrot in the reservoir from which the air has been drawn. A hidden candle in the centre of table is the only illuminant of the room. 17⅝ by 23. ... original price, 15s")

Benedict Nicolson, Joseph Wright of Derby, painter of light. London 1968, vol. 1, pp. 111-114, p. 235, no. 192 (as "An experiment on a bird in the air pump", and referred to in Wright's account book as "The air pump" and as "the picture of the air pump")

Wellcome Collection 575780i