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Joseph Wright (3 September 1734 – 29 August 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 notable 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 the meetings of the Lunar Society, a group of 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.
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Read full Wikipedia entryArtworks
Joseph Wright of Derby Vesuvius in Eruption, with a View over the Islands in the Bay of Naples
c.1776–80
Joseph Wright of Derby An Iron Forge
1772
Joseph Wright of Derby Sir Brooke Boothby
1781
Joseph Wright of Derby A Moonlight with a Lighthouse, Coast of Tuscany
?exhibited 1789
Joseph Wright of Derby A View of Catania with Mount Etna in the Distance
c.1775
Joseph Wright of Derby Thomas Staniforth of Darnall, Co. York
1769
Joseph Wright of Derby Inside the Arcade of the Colosseum
c.1774–5
Attributed to Joseph Wright of Derby Study of an Unknown Man
c.1751–7
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Alice Insley – Painter and Place: Joseph Wright of Derby in the 19th century
Alice Insley gives an account of the early years of Derby Free Library and Museum and discusses how the museum ...
Features
Art Term
Chiaroscuro
Chiaroscuro is an Italian term which translates as light-dark, and refers to the balance and pattern of light and shade ...
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