Biography of Wright, Joseph, of Derby (English painter, 1734-1797)

Joseph Wright of Derby (1734–1797) was born in Derby and worked there for most of his life.  In 1751, he went to London to study with the leading portrait-painter Thomas Hudson (1701-1779), and from 1768 until 1771 he worked in Liverpool.  From Derby, he sent works to exhibition at the Society of Artists in London, but the themes of his landscape and subject paintings and the sitters of his portraits were always taken from Derby and the surrounding province.

In 1773, Wright took his new wife to Italy, where he studied the Renaissance masters and the antique, but he was particularly fascinated by the landscape and especially Mount Vesuvius, which was to be an inspiration in his later fire-paintings.  He returned to Derby in September 1775, and came to Bath almost immediately.

On his return to Derby by June 1777, he spent more time on landscape painting, but still kept up the portrait business, taking up where he had left off at his departure to Italy.  The following year he began to exhibit at the Royal Academy.