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3 unusual facts about Joseph Wright of Derby


John Hamilton Mortimer

During this time he became a friend of Joseph Wright, a fellow student at the Academy - a friendship which would endure throughout Mortimer's life.

Swanwick, Derbyshire

The Woods succeeded the Turners as owners of most of the local mineral rights, and Hugo Wood later moved into the newer Hall with his family; a painting of his children, by Joseph Wright of Derby, used to hang in its dining room.

Walter Synnot

He features in the famous 18th-century painting "The Children of Walter Synnot Esq" by Joseph Wright of Derby.


An Experiment with an Air Pump

An Experiment with an Air Pump is a play by British playwright Shelagh Stephenson inspired by the painting An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump by Joseph Wright.

Markeaton Hall

Sir John Mundy's descendants included a number of High Sheriffs of Derbyshire including Francis Noel Clarke Mundy who commissioned paintings from Joseph Wright of Derby to decorate his home and record the hunts that took place at Markeaton.

Wolverhampton Art Gallery

Selected paintings by the 18th-century artists from the Gallery collection include the 'Portrait of the Lee Family' by Joseph Highmore, 'David Garrick in 'The Provoked Wife' by Johann Zoffany, 'Portrait of Erasmus Darwin' (1792) by Joseph Wright of Derby, 'Apotheosis of Penelope Boothby' by Henry Fuseli, 'Arrival of Louis XVIII at Calais' by Wolverhampton-born Edward Bird.


see also

James Holworthy

a niece of Joseph Wright of Derby in Derby, and retired to the Brookfield estate, near Hathersage in Derbyshire, which he had purchased.