38. Derby (4) Art Gallery - paintings of Joseph Wright

(and Museum, see 37.)

Scenes from the English 'MIDLANDS'

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The Art Gallery, in the museum building, houses an impressive collection of paintings by Joseph Wright.

Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-1797) was an English landscape and portrait painter. Wright has been acclaimed as "the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution". Joseph 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. Wright's paintings of the birth of science out of alchemy, often based on the meetings of the Lunar Society, a group of very influential 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. I've reproduced quite a few of Wright's paintings here, mostly oil on canvas, I've also added the notes from the paintings BUT PLEASE VISIT the gallery for yourself, Joseph Wright's paintings are a real treat to view and study, my cheap camera can hardly do them justice!

The Joseph Wright gallery in the Derby Museum and Art Gallery.

Derby Art Gallery: "Romeo and Juliet. The Tomb scene. 'Noise again! Then I'll be brief'.", by the painter Joseph Wright, oil on canvas painting, exhibited 1790

Derby Art Gallery: Left: "Maria from Sterne", by the painter Joseph Wright, oil on canvas painting, exhibited 1781

Derby Art Gallery: Right: "A Blacksmith's Shop", by the painter Joseph Wright, oil on canvas painting, 1771, exhibited 1772

Derby Art Gallery: "Reverend d'Ewes Coke, his wife Hannah, and Daniel Parker Coke, MP", by the painter Joseph Wright, oil on canvas painting, 1781-1782

Derby Art Gallery: "The Widow of an Indian Chief watching the Arms of her Deceased Husband", by the painter Joseph Wright, oil on canvas painting, exhibited 1785

Derby Art Gallery: "An Earth Stopper on the banks of the Derwent", by the painter Joseph Wright, oil on canvas painting, dated 1773

Derby Art Gallery: "A Philosopher Giving that Lecture on the Orrery, in which a lamp is put in the Place of the Sun", by the painter Joseph Wright, oil on canvas painting, exhibited 1766

Derby Art Gallery: "The Alchymist, in Search of the Philosopher's Stone, discovers Phosphorus, and prays for the successful conclusion of his operation, as was the custom of the ancient chymical astrologers", by the painter Joseph Wright, oil on canvas painting, exhibited 1771, reworked and dated 1795

Derby Art Gallery: Left: "Richard Arkwright, his wife Mary and Child", Joseph Wright, oil on canvas painting, 1790

Derby Art Gallery: Right: "Sir Richard Arkwright", by the painter Joseph Wright, oil on canvas painting, 1790

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