Wright of Derby
| Joseph Wright | |
|---|---|
Self-portrait ca. 1780, oil on canvas, in the Yale Center for British Art
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| Born |
3 September 1734 Derby |
| Died | 29 August 1797 (aged 62) Derby |
| Residence | Derby |
| Nationality | English |
| Other names | Wright of Derby |
| Occupation | Painter |
Joseph Wright ARA (3 September 1734 – 29 August 1797), styled Joseph Wright of Derby, was an English landscape and portrait painter. He has been acclaimed as "the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution".
Wright is notable for his use of chiaroscuro effect, which emphasises the contrast of light and dark, and for his paintings of candle-lit subjects. His paintings of the birth of science out of alchemy, often based on the meetings of the Lunar Society, a group of scientists and industrialists living in the English Midlands, are a significant record of the struggle of science against religious values in the period known as the Age of Enlightenment.
Many of Wright's paintings and drawings are owned by Derby City Council, and are on display at the Derby Museum and Art Gallery.
Joseph Wright was born in Irongate, Derby to a respectable family of lawyers. the third of five children of John Wright (1697–1767), attorney, and Town Clerk of Derby, and his wife, Hannah Brookes (1700–1764). Joseph had two elder brothers, John and Richard Wright. Deciding to become a painter, Wright went to London in 1751 and for two years studied under Thomas Hudson, the master of Joshua Reynolds. After painting portraits for a while at Derby, Wright again worked as an assistant to Hudson for fifteen months. In 1753 he returned to and settled in Derby and varied his work in portraiture by the production of the subjects with strong chiaroscuro under artificial light, with which his name is chiefly associated, and by landscape painting. Wright also spent a productive period in Liverpool, from 1768 to 1771, painting portraits. These included pictures of a number of prominent citizens and their families.
Wright married Ann (also known as Hannah) Swift, the daughter of a leadminer, on 28 July 1773
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