Joseph Wright of Derby

“ An attorney of Derby, speaking of “Equity Wright,” some years after his death, said, “he might have died very rich, had he acted like the generality of his profession.” There can be no doubt that he was a thoroughly good lawyer, for on more than one occasion, when he waited on the celebrated Sir Eardley Wilmot, of Osmaston, for an opinion, Sir Eardley said to him, “You are come to throw away a guinea with me, Mr. Wright, for you know the law as well as I do.” ”

“ There are men who are interesting from their associations, but whom no associations can redeem. Such was Joseph Pickford. I first became acquainted with his figure and circumstances at Derby, in 1815. His father had been an architect and builder, and the intimate friend of Wright the painter, remarkable for his illustrations of the varieties of light and their effects ”

“ By his kindness I am allowed here to aid in doing justice to an artist of whom not only Derby, but England, should be proud.
Even if such a feat were possible, I should have no wish to compare accurately the merits of Wright with those of his forerunners and contemporaries. It will, however, be generally acknowledged that between such names as Hogarth, Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Wilson, and such as West, Northcote, Barry, and Hamilton, there is a gap—sensibly to be felt. In this gap, but nearer to the greater than to the lesser men, a place has of late years been found for Romney. ”

“ It would be unpardonable to leave Derby without noticing the celebrated artist, Mr. Wright, who has resided several years in a house [27] facing the New Inn, overgrown with ivy, which, together with its high walls, proclaims an habitation sacred to study and retirement. The result of his labours are always open to the inspection of the stranger, an indulgence characteristic of this gentleman’s well-known affability ”

“ One of the daughters, Elizabeth, died unmarried in 1766, and Mary, the other, became the wife of Captain John Wilson, R.N., of Tamworth, and died in 1805. The son was named Richard, after his father, and followed the same profession. The third Richard in this branch was, like Joseph Wright the painter, the great grandson of the Rector of Longford, and must not be confounded with another Dr. Richard Wright, his second cousin, and brother of the [3] artist. For the sake of distinction he may be called Dr. Richard Wright of London, where he settled and became distinguished. ”

“ In 1795 he writes, “I am glad to hear my good friend (Tate) has laid hold of his brushes again. Paper and camel hair pencils are better adapted to the amusement of ladies than the pursuit of an artist.”
The Messrs. Redgrave, in their “Century of Painters,” say, “We have heard of, but not seen, works in this medium by Wright, of Derby.” It is gratifying to know that there are in existence some interesting landscape sketches and portraits in Water-colours by Wright, that tend to show that Wright could use the new medium with great effect and brilliancy. ”

“ The errors you have corrected in the Magazine are considerable, and make the production more valuable.
“RICHD WRIGHT.”
Prefixed to this notice of Wright, by Mr. Philips, was an engraved portrait of the artist by Blake.
JOSEPH WRIGHT. Etched by himself.
Amongst the effects of the late Mr. Geo. Cumberland, who was an intimate friend of Blake’s, was found an etching, evidently the one that served Blake as his copy, on which is written, “Wright, of Derby; etched by himself.” This is the only instance known of Wright having used the etching point. ”

“ The inimitable Wright, of Derby, once expressed an ardent desire to be admitted a member of the Academy, but from what unaccountable reason his wishes were frustrated remains as yet a secret to the world; but the sagacious, or, rather, the envious brethren of the brush thought proper to thrust so eminent an artist on one side to make way for so contemptible an animal as Edmund Garbage (Garvey) . ”

“ Early Life.—Mechanical Pursuits.—Aspirations after Art.—Love of Music and Society.—Studies under Hudson.—Returns to Derby.—Again Studies under Hudson.
Young Wright early manifested a taste for mechanics. His brother, Richard, writing to a friend some years afterwards, thus alludes to his leisure employments. “At an early time in life he showed great propensity to knowledge in several mechanical branches; and being of an active mind, would frequently spend his vacant time from school in going to different shops to see the men work. ”

“ J. Leigh Philips on the Character of Wright.—Sale of Wright’s Pictures in London and Derby.—Letters from J. Holland and Rev. Thos. Gisborne.
On August 19th 1790, Mrs. Wright died of consumption, aged 41. This loss inflicted a crushing domestic blow to her husband, whose health now began seriously to fail, and from his MS. Book we are enabled by the following receipt to fix the time when Wright left St. Helen’s house (which was soon after pulled down) , and by the name of the owner of the property, Mr. ”

“ Here he formed an intimate friendship with Thornton, Beridge, & Clyfford, whose custom it was to breakfast together in the apartments of each other. Hayley devoted some months of the year 1772 to his highly-valued friend Beridge, who had settled as a physician at Derby. Hayley then copied in water-colours two bold sketches of scenery near Matlock, lent to him by the very amiable artist Wright, of Derby, with whom he began this year an intimacy that lasted to the death of the painter, who frequently in his letters consulted his friend of Sussex on the subjects of his pencil. ”

“ It had been Hayley’s first intention to educate his son for the profession of physic, but many circumstances combined to give him a strong inclination for that of the arts. During a visit to Mrs. Hayley, Wright, of Derby, perceived in him so much aptitude for painting, that he took pains in instructing him ”

“ It will seem strange to many that Wright should in his day have ranked even higher as a landscape painter than as a painter of men, but his fireworks and conflagration effects were a novelty, and were executed with a skill which must have then seemed astonishing. Now, perhaps, even if they were done with the superior genius of a Turner, we should not care overmuch for them. His more ordinary scenes from nature were sometimes almost as good as Wilson’s, but generally wanted the warmth and the air of that fine artist, and his composition was apt to be too palpably ingenious. ”

“ There is a painful solidity of execution, a want of quality and texture both in the flesh and draperies, so that when placed beside the works of Reynolds or Gainsboro’ his portraits remind us of the labours of the house painter; they show little variety of handling; flesh, drapery, sky, trees, all being executed in the same painty manner.”—“Century of Painters,” vol. 1, p. 258.
CRITICISMS ON THE PICTURE CALLED “AN EXPERIMENT WITH AN AIR PUMP.”
“We certainly should have placed Wright of Derby much lower as an artist had we not seen this very clever work.... ”

“ The Bishop and the Painter.—Settles at Bath.—Letter to his Sister “Nancy.”—Prices of Portraits.—Wright’s Method of Making up his Palette.—Returns to Derby.—Lodges with the Eleys.—Removes to St. Helen’s.—Wilson and Wright.—Anecdotes.
Soon after Wright’s return from Italy, an Irish Bishop [22] bespoke a large picture of Vesuvius, and on passing through Derby called at his painting-rooms to look at it. The mountain and burning lava were nearly finished, but the foreground being only laid in, there wanted the bold dark parts to give effect to the brilliant lights. ”

“ On leaving Seighford, the Rev. John Wright became Rector of Longford, Co. Derby, where he died in 1681. His death is thus recorded in the Parish Register, “1681. John Wright, rector of Longford, an orthodox and worthy son. Buried January 10th.”
[2]
This exemplary clergyman left a widow and eight children. The maiden name of the former I have not been able to discover, but her Christian name was Elizabeth, and those of his surviving children (he had lost one, Sarah, during her childhood) are written on the back of the inventory of his goods, thus—
Richard. John. Thomas. Jonathan. Matthewe. ”

“ And moonlight sleeps upon its hoary brink.” From the “Memoirs of the life of Dr. Darwin.” By Anna Seward.
“In the course of the year 1770, Mr. Day stood for a full-length picture [41] to Mr. Wright, of Derby. A strong likeness, and a dignified portrait were the result. Drawn as in the open air, the surrounding sky is tempestuous, lurid, and dark. He stands leaning his left arm against a [80] column inscribed to Hampden. Mr. Day looks upward as enthusiastically meditating on the contents of a book, held in his dropped right hand. ”

“ What artist has a better made.’”
Again, on the back of a landscape, now in the possession of Godfrey Wedgwood, Esq., is written the following:—
“The gift of Joseph Wright to his friend Jos. Wedgwood, Esq., the patron and encourager of living artists, 1787.”
In the Appendix, amongst the list of pictures, will be found many more instances of such gifts. Thus: “Given to my friend Tate.” “For Mr. Hayley. Mem. not paid.” etc.
As a Water-colour painter of the English school, Wright must be ranked as one of the earliest. ”

“ For Miss Nancy Wright, at Mr. Hurleston’s in Cary Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, England.
“What havock, my dear Nancy, does a little time make in the small circle of one’s acquaintance, and how weak and tottering is the basis on which human happiness is founded. Poor Mrs. Van! I left her a happy wife, smiling amidst a joyous family, but now, by one fatal stroke, suddenly involved in bitter calamity, in deep affliction, a sad disconsolate widow. I hope to God Mr. Van has left her so circumstanced that she will feel no additional sorrow on that consideration. ”

“ Moss Tate, of Liverpool, told a gentleman who called upon him early in this century to see some paintings by Wright in his possession, that “he was always pleased to see a Derbyshire man, for that county had produced three most eminent men in the sister arts—Chantrey, the sculptor, Wright, the painter, and John Harrison, the singer.”
It is seldom that a better opportunity is found of obtaining a clear insight into the working and every-day life of an artist, than that afforded by the material collected for the present volume. ”

“ Many men of celebrity, not only local, he painted—Arkwright and Whitehurst, Darwin and Strutt; but the charm of his portraits does not depend on the fame of the sitter, but on the power of the artist to seize a distinct individuality, and to make each likeness for ever interesting as an authentic image of a fellow-man. Unsophisticated by fashion or affectation, Wright’s portraits are history in its simplest and truest form.
Of the pure charm of his children, some of the illustrations to this volume, especially Mr. Seymour Haden’s painter-like etching of the “Twins,” will speak. ”

“ Hayley not only sympathised in the happiness of the restored Physician, but in the weeks that he passed under his friend’s roof he had the gratification of cultivating an intimacy with Wright, the admirable painter of Derby, who, having injured his health by too assiduous application to his art, had great comfort in the kind attention he received from the friendly physician, & took a pleasure in executing for Hayley two hasty portraits in chiaro-oscuro of Mrs. ”

“ Whilst in Italy he made many landscape sketches from nature, which supplied him on his return to England with the greater part of the material for the landscapes he produced from 1775 [13] to within a few years of his death, although these were interspersed with scenes from Scotland, Derbyshire, and the Lake District.
Wright was at an early period elected a member of the Society of Artists, to whose exhibitions in the Spring Gardens he contributed many years, as will be seen from the following lists extracted from the catalogues. ”

“ Hannah Wright, daughter of Richard and Sarah Wright.
[22] The Bishop of Derry.
[23] From a memo.:—“Entered Mrs. Sproule’s House 9th Nov., 1775. My horse went to Ward’s Livery Stable 29th Dec., 1775.”
[24]
No. 147 in Catalogue of Society of Artists, 1776—“An Eruption of Mount Vesuvius.”
No. 148 in Catalogue of Society of Artists, 1776—“The Annual Girandolo at the Castle of St. Angelo at Rome.”
[25] Redgrave’s Century of Painters.
[26] Life of Richard Wilson.
[27] St. Helen’s.
[28] Hutton, in his “History of Derby,” says—“1601. A woman burnt in Windmill Pit, for poisoning her husband.” ”

“ The father had built in the Friar Gate a house of some architectural pretensions, his chef-d’œuvre, people said. The sons had divided it. He occupied the smaller portion, entered by a side door, much as it had come from the builder’s hands. The only pretty thing in his sitting room was a charming picture by Wright, of Pickford and his brother playing with a spaniel, of the date 1775, I should think, and in the gay costume of that period. It passed into the hands of a branch of the Curzon family. When I called on Pickford it was a caution to see what a beautiful child might come to. ”

“ This turkey is from my old fellow-’prentice, Joe Wright,” said Mortimer, [39] “who never forgets us at Christmas. Poor Joe, the valetudinarian! I’d be sworn he procured one of the least in all Derby out of sheer compassion to our evil habits. He knows we always dress his Christmas turkey for supper, and he has generally a hint by way of postscript to his letters, touching the prevalence of apoplexy. Now Master Joe was one of your water-gruel disciples when we were youngsters together at Hudson’s ”