Joseph Wright of Derby

Joseph Wright was born on September 3, 1734, in Derby, England, and became so closely identified with his hometown that he is known to art history as Joseph Wright of Derby. He trained in London under the portrait painter Thomas Hudson, developing a masterful command of chiaroscuro — the dramatic interplay of light and shadow — that he would apply to subject matter no painter had seriously attempted before: scenes from the emerging world of science and industry.\n\nWright's most celebrated works, A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery and An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, depict gatherings of curious onlookers illuminated by artificial light as they witness scientific demonstrations. These paintings place the rational inquiry of the Enlightenment at the emotional centre of visual art, registering both the excitement and the moral unease that attended new knowledge. Wright was a member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham — a remarkable circle of industrialists, scientists, and thinkers that included Erasmus Darwin, Matthew Boulton, and James Watt — and his paintings document the intellectual atmosphere of that milieu with unmatched sensitivity. He died in Derby on August 29, 1797, leaving a body of work that stands alone in its era.