Joseph Wright of Derby Paintings

Joseph Wright (September 3, 1734 – August 29, 1797), a.k.a. Wright of Derby, was an English portrait and landscape painter. He was known as a painter who portrayed the spirit of the Industrial Revolution. Wright’s works can be found on display at the Derby Museum and Art Gallery. Wright is well-known for his paintings of candle-lit subjects and the use of chiaroscuro, emphasizing the contrast of dark and light. His paintings contain a significant record of the struggle of science against religious ideology and of the birth of science from alchemy in the Age of Enlightenment. Learn more »

Paintings by Joseph Wright in Chronological Order

Boy with Plumed Hat and Greyhound, 1750 Self-Portrait at the Age of about Twenty, 1753 Anne Bateman, later Mrs. John Gisbourne, 1755
Anne or Molly Cracroft, 1760 Harvey Wilmot, 1760 Portrait of a Lady, 1760
Simon Wilmot, 1760 William Brooke, 1760 A Girl reading a letter by Candlelight, with a Young Man peering over her shoulder, 1762
Edward Becher Leacroft, 1762 Mrs. Andrew Lindington, 1762 Francis Noel Clarke Mundy, 1763
Harry Peckham, 1763 Mrs. Wilmot in Riding Dress, 1763 Nicholas Heath, 1763
James and Mary Shuttleworth with One of Their Daughters, 1764 William Rastall, 1764 Peter Perez Burdett and his First Wife Hannah, 1765
Self-Portrait, 1765 Three Persons Viewing the Gladiator by Candlelight, 1765 Mrs. Robert Gwillym, 1766
Robert Vernon Atherton Gwillym, 1766 The Orrery, 1766 An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, 1768
Cornet Sir George Cooke, 1768 Dressing the Kitten, 1768 Study of a Young Girl in a Turban and Frilled Collar, 1768
Study of a Young Girl with Feathers in Her Hair, 1768 A Philosopher by Lamp Light, 1769 An Academy by Lamplight, 1769
Mrs. John Ashton, 1769 Mrs. Sarah Clayton, 1769 Portrait of Fleetwood Hesketh, 1769
Portrait of Sarah Carver and her daughter Sarah, 1769 A Conversation between Girls, or Two Girls with their Black Servant, 1770 A Girl reading a Letter, with an Old Man reading over her shoulder, 1770
An Open Hearth with a Fire, 1770 Landscape Study Development from a Blot, 1770 Portrait of a Lady with Her Lacework, 1770
Portrait of Dr Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) scientist, inventor and poet, grandfather of Charles Darwin, 1770 Self-Portrait in a Black Feathered Hat, 1770 Thomas Day, 1770
Two Boys Fighting over a Bladder, 1770 A Blacksmith’s Shop, 1771 The Alchemist Discovering Phosphorus or The Alchemist in Search of the Philosophers Stone, 1771
Captain Robert Shore Milnes, 1772 Miravan Breaking Open the Tomb of his Ancestors, 1772 Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Coltman, 1772
Portrait of Mrs Catherine Swindell, 1772 Study of the Interior of Glass House, 1772 The Iron Forge, 1772
Self Portrait at the age of about Forty, 1773 The Earthstopper on the Banks of the Derwent, 1773 A Cavern, Evening, 1774
Study of the Terrain near Vesuvius, 1774 The Captive, from Sterne, 1774 The Old Man and Death, 1774
A View of Mount Etna and A Nearby Town, 1775 Inside the Arcade of the Colosseum, 1775 Study of John Staveley’s Head, 1775
Study of Melancholy Girl, 1775 An Eruption of Vesuvius, seen from Portici, 1776 John Milnes, 1776
Virgil’s Tomb, with the Figure of Silius Italicus, 1779 A Grotto in the Gulf of Salernum, with the figure of Julia, banished from Rome, 1780 Francis Hurt, 1780
John Pickering, c.1780 Matlock Tor by Daylight, c.1780 Mrs. Francis Hurt, c.1780
Mrs. Samuel Crompton, c.1780 Old John, Head Waiter at the King’s Head in Derby, c.1780 Portrait of a Girl in a Tawny Colored Dress, c.1780
Samuel Crompton, c.1780 Vesuvius in Eruption, c.1780 Vesuvius in Eruption, with a View over the Islands in the Bay of Naples, c.1780
A Grotto in the Gulf of Salerno, Sunset, c.1781 Brooke Boothby, 1781 Christopher Heath, 1781
Maria, from Sterne, a Companion to the Picture of Edwin, 1781 Arkwright’s Cotton Mills by Night, 1782 Benjamin Franklin, 1782
D’Ewes Coke, His Wife Hannah and Daniel Parker Coke, 1782 John Whetham or Kirklington, Nottinghamshire, 1782 Self-Portrait at the Age of about Fifty, 1782
John Whitehurst, 1783 John Coates Browne, 1784 Dovedale by Moonlight, 1785
Reverend Basil Bury Beridge, 1785 The Corinthian Maid, 1785 The Lady in Milton’s Comus, 1785
View in Matlock Dale, Looking Towards Black Rock Escarpment, 1785 Widow of an Indian Chief, 1785 Convent of San-Cosimato and Part of the Claudian Aqueduct near Vicovaro in the Roman Campagna, 1786
Thomas Gisborne and His Wife Mary, 1786 View in Dovedale, 1786 A Cottage on Fire, 1787
Lake with Castle on a Hill, 1787 Lady Wilmot and Her Child, 1788 The Children of Hugh and Sarah Wood of Swanwick, Derbyshire, 1789
The Cloister of San Cosimato, 1789 An Italian Landscape with Mountains and a River, 1790 Charles Hurt of Wirksworth, 1790
Italian Landscape, 1790 Jedediah Strutt, 1790 Landscape with Figures and a Tilted Cart, Matlock Hogh Tor in the Distance, 1790
Portrait of Richard Arkwright Junior with his Wife Mary and Daughter Anne, 1790 Romeo and Juliet: The Tomb Scene, ‘Noise again! then I’ll be brief’, 1790 Sir Richard Arkwright, 1790
Sunset on the Coast near Naples, c.1790 Susannah Hurt with Her Daughter Mary Anne, c.1790 The Prisoner, c.1790
Lake Albano, c.1790-c.1792 Lake Nemi, c.1790-c.1792 Portrait of Samuel Oldknow, c.1790-c.1792
Harriet Wright, the Artist’s Daughter, c.1790-c.1793 Landscape with a Rainbow, 1794 Landscape near Bedgellert, c.1790-c.1795
Ullswater, c.1795 View of the Lake of Nemi, 1790-1795 Cottage on Fire at Night
Edwin, from ‘Minstrel’ by Dr. Beattie Erasmus Darwin Francis Burdett
Landscape with Dale Abbey Mr. and Mrs. William Chase Penelope Unravelling her Web
Portrait of the Revd. Samuel Rastall, Dean of Killaloe, Ireland Sir William FitzHerbert as a boy The Blacksmith’s Shop, 18th century
The Eruption of Vesuvius Vesuvius from Portici Virgil’s Tomb