Friday 13 June 2014

Joseph Wright of Derby - part 5

Portrait of Joseph Wright by William Tate ( 1747-1806 ), a student of Joseph Wright

Joseph Wright (1734 – 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 noted 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 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.

This is part 5 of a 5 - part post on the works of Joseph Wright. For full biographical notes see part 1. For earlier works see parts 1 - 4 also.




1789c The Dead Soldier 
oil on canvas 101.6 x 127 cm

1790 Italian Landscape 
oil on canvas 103.5 x 130.4 cm 
The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1790 Portrait of Richard Arkwright Junior with his Wife Mary and Daughter Anne 
oil on canvas 244 x 158.5 cm

1790 Romeo and Juliet: The Tomb Scene 
oil on canvas 177.8 x 241.3 cm 
Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, UK

1790 The Lake of Albano 
oil on canvas 101.9 x 126.4 cm 
National Museum Wales, Cardiff, UK

1790-02c Lake Albano 
oil on canvas 36.2 x 54.5 cm 
Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, CT


1790-92 Antigonus in the Storm ( Act III, scene iii ) from Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale"
oil on canvas 153.9 x 221.3 cm 
Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada

1793 Samuel Middiman after Joseph Wright "Winter's Tale" 
engraving ( Spooner Edition 1852 ) 49.5 x 63.5 cm 
Harvard Art Museums - Fogg Museum, Cambridge, MA


1790-92c Samuel Oldknow 
oil on canvas 243.9 x 152.4 cm 
Temple Newsam House, Leeds Museums and Galleries, UK

1790-93 Mrs. Francis Boott 
oil on canvas 77.2 x 64.1 cm 
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

1790-93c Harriet Wright, the Artist's Daughter 
brown monochrome on canvas 24.4 x 21.3 cm
Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, UK

1790-95c Landscape near Bedgellert, North Wales 
oil on canvas 57.1 x 76.3 cm 
Private Collection

1790c A Cottage in Needwood Forest, Staffordshire 
oil on canvas 100.4 x 125.7 cm 
Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, UK

1790c Italian Landscape with Mountains and a River 
oil on canvas 52.1 x 77.5 cm 
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

1790c Jedediah Strutt 
oil on canvas 127 x 101.6 cm 
Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, UK

1790c Lake Nemi at Sunset 
oil on canvas 100 x 128 cm 
Louvre, Paris

1790c Lake Nemi 
oil on canvas 36.2 x 54.5 cm 
Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, CT

1790c Lake Nemi, Sunset 
oil on wood panel 44.5 x 62.5 cm 
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia

1790c Landscape with Figures and a Tilted Cart: Matlock High Tor in the Distance 
oil on canvas 101.6 x 127 cm 
Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton, NY

1791 Bridge through a Cavern, Moonlight 
oil on canvas 63.5 x 76.2 cm 
Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, UK

1791 Three Children of Richard Arkwright with a Goat 
oil on canvas ( 190.5 x 149.9 cm )

1792 Lake Albano and Castel Gandolfo, Italy 
oil on canvas? 36.9 x 43.4 cm  
Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, UK

1793 Lake of Keswick and Skiddaw ( attributed to ) 
graphite and ink on paper 28.4 x 43.6 cm


1794 Landscape with a Rainbow 
oil on canvas 81.2 x 106.7 cm 
Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, UK

n.d. Landscape with Rainbow, View near Chesterfield 
watercolour 31.1 x 41 cm 
Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, CT


1795 Portrait of Sarah and Ann Haden 
oil on canvas mounted on panel 
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA

1795 Rydal Waterfall, Cumbria 
oil on canvas 57.2 x 76.2 cm 
Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, UK

1795-96 Derwent Water, with Skiddaw in the Distance 
oil on canvas 56.5 x 80 cm 
Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, CT

1795c Ullswater 
oil on canvas 44.4 x 52 cm 
Dove Cottage and The Wordsworth Museum, Grasmere, UK

1983-86 Italian Landscape, a View near Tivoli 
oil on canvas 76.2 x 96.5 cm 
Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, UK

1992 Erasmus Darwin 
oil on canvas 76 x 63.5 cm 
Wolverhampton Arts and Heritage, UK

Note: I couldn't find dates for the following works; they are either undated or not dated by the in the relevant collections. They will by default be out of date sequence:


n.d High Tor, Matlock, Derbyshire 
oil on canvas  
Leicester Arts and Museums Service, UK

n.d. A Church in Italy 
watercolour 24.8 x 32.4 cm 
Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, CT

n.d. Anna Ashton ( Later Mrs Thomas Case )  
oil on canvas 123.7 x 98.8 cm 
University of Liverpool, UK

n.d. Dovedale by Derbyshire, Moonlight 
oil on canvas 68.5 x 90 cm 
Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, UK

n.d. Girl with a Dove 
oil on canvas 61 x 50.8 cm 
Private Collection

n.d. Ironworking ( attributed to ) 
oil on board 17 x 24.1 cm  
Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, UK

n.d. Italianate Lake Scene with Waterfall  
oil on canvas 52.5 x 89.5  cm 
The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford, UK

n.d. James Winthorpe Mortimer ( attributed to ) 
oil on canvas 65 x 54.8 cm 
Derby Art Gallery, Derby, UK

n.d. Landscape with Ruins 
graphite, black and white chalk, grey, brown and black wash on beige paper 40.6 x 46 cm 
Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, CT

n.d. Nice. A Tower on a Hill 
graphite and watercolour 24.2 x 34.8 cm 
Tate, London

n.d. Portrait of a Man Reading ( attributed to ) 
oil on canvas 72.4 x 57.8 cm 
Temple Newsam House, Leeds Museums and Galleries, UK

n.d. Portrait of Mr. Anthony Greatorex 
oil on canvas 76.2 x 63.5 cm 
SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA

n.d. Portrait of Mrs. Anthony Greatorex 
oil on canvas 76.2 x 63.5 cm 
SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA

n.d. Portrait of Mrs Abney 
oil in canvas? 125 x 100 cm 
Private Collection

n.d. Portrait of Susannah Leigh 
oil on canvas mounted on panel 74 x 63 cm 
Private Collection

n.d. Portrait of the Hon Mrs Boyle 
oil on canvas 76.2 x 63.5 cm 
Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand

n.d. Ravenhead Works, St Helens, Lancashire ( attributed to ) 
oil on canvas 76 x 105 cm  
Pilkington Glass Collection, UK

n.d. Robert Parker of Cuerden Hall 
oil on canvas 127 x 102 cm 
Astley Hall Museum and Art Gallery, Astley Park, Chorley, Lancashire, UK

n.d. Rocky Landscape with Waterfalls 
graphite and wash on paper 38.1 x 54.3 cm 
Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, CT

n.d. Samuel Bristowe of Twyford and Beesthorpe ( 1736–1818 ) ( attributed to ) 
oil on canvas 73.5 x 61.1 cm 
County House, Castle Meadow Road, Nottingham, UK

n.d. Scene near Naples, Italy, Moonlight 
oil on canvas 59.1 x 74.3 cm 
Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, UK

n.d. Snowdon by Moonlight 
oil on canvas 88 x 123 cm 
Victoria Gallery and Museum, Liverpool, UK

n.d. The Campagna 
graphite, grey and blue wash on cream laid paper 27.6 x 49.2 cm 
Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, CT

n.d. The Funeral Pyre 
oil on millboard 48.3 x 63.9 cm 
York Museums Trust, UK

n.d. The Reverend Thomas Wilson ( 1703–1784 ) and Miss Catherine Macaulay ( 1731–1791 ) 
oil on canvas 127.6 x 101.6 cm 
Chawton House Library, Alton, UK

n.d. Two Students Sketching ( attributed to ) 
oil on canvas 115.6 x 135.9 cm 
Five Colleges Museums Collections Database, MA