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
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| Boy with Plumed Hat and Greyhound, 1750 | Self-Portrait at the Age of about Twenty, 1753 | Anne Bateman, later Mrs. John Gisbourne, 1755 |
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| Anne or Molly Cracroft, 1760 | Harvey Wilmot, 1760 | Portrait of a Lady, 1760 |
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| Simon Wilmot, 1760 | William Brooke, 1760 | A Girl reading a letter by Candlelight, with a Young Man peering over her shoulder, 1762 |
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| Edward Becher Leacroft, 1762 | Mrs. Andrew Lindington, 1762 | Francis Noel Clarke Mundy, 1763 |
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| Harry Peckham, 1763 | Mrs. Wilmot in Riding Dress, 1763 | Nicholas Heath, 1763 |
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| James and Mary Shuttleworth with One of Their Daughters, 1764 | William Rastall, 1764 | Peter Perez Burdett and his First Wife Hannah, 1765 |
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| Self-Portrait, 1765 | Three Persons Viewing the Gladiator by Candlelight, 1765 | Mrs. Robert Gwillym, 1766 |
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| Robert Vernon Atherton Gwillym, 1766 | The Orrery, 1766 | An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, 1768 |
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| Cornet Sir George Cooke, 1768 | Dressing the Kitten, 1768 | Study of a Young Girl in a Turban and Frilled Collar, 1768 |
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| Study of a Young Girl with Feathers in Her Hair, 1768 | A Philosopher by Lamp Light, 1769 | An Academy by Lamplight, 1769 |
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| Mrs. John Ashton, 1769 | Mrs. Sarah Clayton, 1769 | Portrait of Fleetwood Hesketh, 1769 |
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| 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 |
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| An Open Hearth with a Fire, 1770 | Landscape Study Development from a Blot, 1770 | Portrait of a Lady with Her Lacework, 1770 |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| Captain Robert Shore Milnes, 1772 | Miravan Breaking Open the Tomb of his Ancestors, 1772 | Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Coltman, 1772 |
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| Portrait of Mrs Catherine Swindell, 1772 | Study of the Interior of Glass House, 1772 | The Iron Forge, 1772 |
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| Self Portrait at the age of about Forty, 1773 | The Earthstopper on the Banks of the Derwent, 1773 | A Cavern, Evening, 1774 |
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| Study of the Terrain near Vesuvius, 1774 | The Captive, from Sterne, 1774 | The Old Man and Death, 1774 |
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| A View of Mount Etna and A Nearby Town, 1775 | Inside the Arcade of the Colosseum, 1775 | Study of John Staveley’s Head, 1775 |
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| Study of Melancholy Girl, 1775 | An Eruption of Vesuvius, seen from Portici, 1776 | John Milnes, 1776 |
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| 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 |
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| John Pickering, c.1780 | Matlock Tor by Daylight, c.1780 | Mrs. Francis Hurt, c.1780 |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| A Grotto in the Gulf of Salerno, Sunset, c.1781 | Brooke Boothby, 1781 | Christopher Heath, 1781 |
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| Maria, from Sterne, a Companion to the Picture of Edwin, 1781 | Arkwright’s Cotton Mills by Night, 1782 | Benjamin Franklin, 1782 |
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| 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 |
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| John Whitehurst, 1783 | John Coates Browne, 1784 | Dovedale by Moonlight, 1785 |
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| Reverend Basil Bury Beridge, 1785 | The Corinthian Maid, 1785 | The Lady in Milton’s Comus, 1785 |
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| 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 |
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| Thomas Gisborne and His Wife Mary, 1786 | View in Dovedale, 1786 | A Cottage on Fire, 1787 |
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| Lake with Castle on a Hill, 1787 | Lady Wilmot and Her Child, 1788 | The Children of Hugh and Sarah Wood of Swanwick, Derbyshire, 1789 |
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| The Cloister of San Cosimato, 1789 | An Italian Landscape with Mountains and a River, 1790 | Charles Hurt of Wirksworth, 1790 |
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| Italian Landscape, 1790 | Jedediah Strutt, 1790 | Landscape with Figures and a Tilted Cart, Matlock Hogh Tor in the Distance, 1790 |
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| 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 |
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| Sunset on the Coast near Naples, c.1790 | Susannah Hurt with Her Daughter Mary Anne, c.1790 | The Prisoner, c.1790 |
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| Lake Albano, c.1790-c.1792 | Lake Nemi, c.1790-c.1792 | Portrait of Samuel Oldknow, c.1790-c.1792 |
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| Harriet Wright, the Artist’s Daughter, c.1790-c.1793 | Landscape with a Rainbow, 1794 | Landscape near Bedgellert, c.1790-c.1795 |
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| Ullswater, c.1795 | View of the Lake of Nemi, 1790-1795 | Cottage on Fire at Night |
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| Edwin, from ‘Minstrel’ by Dr. Beattie | Erasmus Darwin | Francis Burdett |
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| Landscape with Dale Abbey | Mr. and Mrs. William Chase | Penelope Unravelling her Web |
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| Portrait of the Revd. Samuel Rastall, Dean of Killaloe, Ireland | Sir William FitzHerbert as a boy | The Blacksmith’s Shop, 18th century |
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| The Eruption of Vesuvius | Vesuvius from Portici | Virgil’s Tomb |