Duro, Paul. 'Great and Noble Ideas of the Moral Kind': Wright of Derby and the Scientific Sublime (Wiley, 2010)
Joseph Wright of Derby
Born: Derby, England, 30 September 1734
Died: Derby, England, 29 August 1797
Nationality: English
Died: Derby, England, 29 August 1797
Nationality: English
Background:
son of a lawyer
Studies:
with Thomas Hudson (1751-53, London)
Career:
-portrait painter
1781 – elected Associate of the Royal Academy, where he exhibited regularly
Travels
Italy (1773-74)
Commissions from:
John Boydell (Shakespeare Gallery)
Important Artworks:
Self-Portrait, c. 1753 (Derby Museum)
A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery, 1766 (Derby Museum)
The Old Man and Death, 1773 (Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford)
Vesuvius in Eruption, with a View over the Islands in the Bay of Naples, c.1776-80 (Tate, London). He painted over 30 views of Vesuvius between 1775 and 1795.
Sir Brooke Boothby, 1781 (Tate, London)
Corinthian Maid, 1783-84 (National Gallery of Art, London)
The Widow of an Indian Chief Watching the Arms of Her Deceased Husband, 1785 (Derby Museum)
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