PAINTER

Joseph Wright of Derby

1734 - 1797

Photo of Joseph Wright of Derby

Icon of person Joseph Wright of Derby

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 tenebrism, an exaggerated form of the better known chiaroscuro effect, which emphasizes 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 of Birmingham, 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. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Joseph Wright of Derby is the 601st most popular painter (down from 576th in 2019), the 1,436th most popular biography from United Kingdom (down from 1,119th in 2019) and the 18th most popular British Painter.

Joseph Wright of Derby is most famous for his paintings of the effects of light and color.

Memorability Metrics

Loading...

Page views of Joseph Wright of Derby by language

Loading...

Among PAINTERS

Among painters, Joseph Wright of Derby ranks 601 out of 2,023Before him are Agostino Tassi, Moïse Kisling, Giuseppe Cesari, Jan van Kessel the Elder, Pierre Auguste Cot, and Roelant Savery. After him are Eugène Carrière, Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, Helen Frankenthaler, Juan de Flandes, Oswald Achenbach, and Paula Rego.

Most Popular Painters in Wikipedia

Go to all Rankings

Contemporaries

Among people born in 1734, Joseph Wright of Derby ranks 12Before him are Anna Göldi, Wolfgang von Kempelen, Grigory Orlov, Charles Alexandre de Calonne, and Jean-Marie Roland de la Platière. After him are Shahrokh Shah, George Romney, Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, Frederick Augustus, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec, Louis François Joseph, Prince of Conti, and Ueda Akinari. Among people deceased in 1797, Joseph Wright of Derby ranks 14Before him are Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern, Lazare Hoche, Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg, Vilna Gaon, and Maria Anna Sophia of Saxony. After him are Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec, Pasquale Anfossi, Wang Zhenyi, Asaf-ud-Daula, Olaudah Equiano, and Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst.

Others Born in 1734

Go to all Rankings

Others Deceased in 1797

Go to all Rankings

In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, Joseph Wright of Derby ranks 1,436 out of 8,785Before him are Louise d'Orléans (1869), Anthony Daniels (1946), Alice Bailey (1880), Charles Bell (1774), David Hamilton (1933), and John Kay (1704). After him are Neil Gaiman (1960), Robert Stirling (1790), Thomas Cavalier-Smith (1942), Duncan Haldane (1951), Thomas Chatterton (1752), and John Austin (1790).

Among PAINTERS In United Kingdom

Among painters born in United Kingdom, Joseph Wright of Derby ranks 18Before him are William Holman Hunt (1827), Leonora Carrington (1917), John Tenniel (1820), Richard Hamilton (1922), Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh (1864), and Thomas Lawrence (1769). After him are Edmund Leighton (1852), Jack Butler Yeats (1871), Thomas Cole (1801), John Martin (1789), George Stubbs (1724), and John William Godward (1861).