The great British art quiz: set by Derby Museums

Triple threat: Derby Museum and Art Gallery. Photograph: Rick Tailby

This quiz is brought to you in collaboration with Art UK, the online home for the UK’s public art collections, showing art from over 3,000 venues and by 45,000 artists. Each day, a different collection on Art UK will set the questions.

Today, our questions are set by Derby Museum and Art Gallery. Derby Museums runs three sites in Derby, including the Museum and Art Gallery, the Museum of Making at Derby Silk Mill, and Pickford’s House Museum.

You can see art from Derby Museum and Art Gallery on Art UK here. Find out more about the Derby Museums here.

1. 

   Benjamin West was born in Pennsylvania in 1738 and later settled in London, where he rose to fame as a painter of modern and historical events. In this painting, West depicts a moment within a wider global conflict, but which one?

   1. The American War of Independence

   2. The Seven Years' War

   3. The War of Jenkin's Ear

   4. The Thirty Years' War

2. 

   The sitter in this portrait by Joseph Wright of Derby was famously described as a 'gross, bag-cheeked, pot-bellied Lancashire man'. Who was he?

   1. Samuel Crompton

   2. James Watt

   3. Richard Arkwright

   4. Matthew Boulton

3. 

   The artist behind this painting is perhaps best-known for his large scene of an annual race meet. Who was he?

   1. William Hogarth

   2. William Powell Frith

   3. William Holman Hunt

   4. William Morris

4. 

   What is the name given to this technique of painting, which uses shades of the same neutral colour?

   1. Chiaroscuro

   2. Grisaille

   3. Mezzotint

   4. Contrapposto

5. 

   Ernest Townsend cited his fellow Derby painter, Joseph Wright, among his influences. His paintings also pay homage to an earlier, Netherlandish painter of light. But who?

   1. Johannes Vermeer

   2. Rembrandt van Rijn

   3. Rachel Ruysch

   4. Gerard van Honthorst

6. 

   This is an unfinished portrait study of Moses by John Singer Sargent. In which US library can you find the mural cycle Triumph of Religion for which this study was made?

   1. Boston Public Library

   2. Library of Congress, Washington

   3. Widener Memorial Library, Harvard University

   4. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University

7. 

   The Italian artist Antiveduto Grammatica chose one of art history's most enduring subjects for this painting. What is it?

   1. Salome with the head of John the Baptist

   2. Timoclea killing her rapist

   3. Judith with the head of Holofernes

   4. Andromache Mourning Hector

8. 

   Derby's current Museum and Art Gallery building was opened in 1879 thanks to generous funding from MP Michael Thomas Bass. From what product did he and his family derive their wealth?

   1. Beer

   2. Dandelion and Burdock

   3. Branston Pickle

   4. Marmite

Solutions

1:B - One of West's most famous paintings, The Death of General Wolfe, also represents a scene from this conflict. General Johnson Saving a Wounded French Officer from a North American Indian c.1768, Benjamin West (1738–1820), Derby Museum and Art Gallery, 2:C - Arkwright was a cotton manufacturer at Cromford in Derbyshire where his use of the water frame and the carding machine revolutionised the cotton industry. He is credited as the creator of the factory system. The famous description of him was penned after his death by the historian Thomas Carlyle and appears in his essay Chartism, published in 1839. Sir Richard Arkwright (1732–1792), 1789–1790, Joseph Wright of Derby (1734–1797), Derby Museum and Art Gallery, 3:B - Frith's painting The Derby Day proved so popular that a rail had to be put up to keep back the crowds when it was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1858. The Artist’s Model, 1856, Wiliam Powell Frith (1819–1909), Derby Museum and Art Gallery, 4:B - This portrait by Joseph Wright of Derby was painted 'en Grisaille'. Wright produced only a handful of paintings using this method, reserving it for portraits of close friends and family members. This portrait shows his second daughter Harriet, and was made in the early 1790s. Harriet (1778–1860) (the artist’s daughter) c.1790–1793, Joseph Wright of Derby (1734–1797), Derby Museum and Art Gallery, 5:A - Townsend is a relatively unknown artist outside Derby, despite exhibiting his work widely at the Paris Salon and Royal Academy, and completing portrait commissions for some notable figures, including Winston Churchill and King George VI. During the second world war, his artistry was put to use in designing camouflage schemes for the roofs of Rolls-Royce's aircraft engine factory at Derby. Summer Morning Interior 1917, Ernest Townsend (1885–1944), Derby Museum and Art Gallery, 6:A - Sargent worked on the mural between 1890 and 1919; the cycle was left incomplete upon his death in 1925. The model for this portrait study of Moses was a Derby resident during Sargent’s visit to Derbyshire. The Widener Memorial Library houses another of Sargent's murals, Death and Victory and Entering the War. Portrait Study for Head of Moses, 1890–1919, John Singer Sargent (1856– 1925), Derby Museum and Art Gallery, 7:C - In this biblical story, Assyrian king Nebuchadnezzar sends his general Holofernes to besiege the Jewish city of Bethulia. Judith, who is described as a beautiful young widow, resolves to save her people by slaying Holofernes. After he becomes drunk, Judith strikes off his head with sword and places it in a bag held by a female servant. Judith and Holophernes 1600–1620, Antiveduto Grammatica (1571–1626), Derby Museum and Art Gallery, 8:A - Bass was both a member of Parliament and brewer. The distinctive red triangle of the Bass Brewery appears on bottles in Édouard Manet's well- known painting A Bar at the Folies-Bergère. The brewery was, at one point, the largest in the world. Michael Thomas Bass (1799–1884), MP, 1877, Thomas Fowkes (1827– c.1887) Derby Museum and Art Gallery

Scores

1. 6 and above.

   A triumph – take a victory lap of your living room.

2. 0 and above.

   A valiant effort but not a great result.

3. 3 and above.

   A creditable attempt.