Wright, Joseph

Wright, Joseph, a painter, called commonly 'Wright of Derby,' was born there on 3d September 1734, the third son of 'Equity Wright,' an attorney and town-clerk. He was educated at Derby grammar-school, and at Derby he died on 29th August 1797, having passed his whole life in his native town, with the exception of three and a half years under Hudson in London (1751-54), two years in Italy (1773-75), and two at Bath (1775-77). He married in 1773 Hannah Swift (1749-90), who bore him three sons and three daughters; first exhibited in London in 1765; and was elected an A.R.A. in 1781, an R.A. in 1784—this latter honour he declined. His paintings—of which there was an exhibition at Derby in 1883—are largely portraits or portrait groups, representing not seldom effects of artificial light, as, e.g., in his well-known 'Orrery' (1766) and 'Air-pump' (1768). If inferior to Gainsborough and Reynolds, and to Romney at Romney's best, Wright of Derby stands very high among the English painters of the 18th century, being 'a master of strong effects of light and shade, gifted with fine perception of the powers of local colour, and something of a poet in landscape.' See the fine folio on him by Mr William Benrose (1886).