Joseph Wright of Derby (1734‱797) is one of the most significant and admired British artists of the Eighteenth Century. Prized by his contemporaries for the originality of his “candlelight” paintings, Wright was also a distinguished portraitist. From 1768 to 1771, he lived and worked in Liverpool, then Britain’s fastest-growing port and a burgeoning cultural and economic center. Wright’s success in Liverpool made him the first great British artist to establish a career outside of London.
“Joseph Wright of Derby in Liverpool,” organized by the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and the Yale Center for British Art, is the first major exhibition to examine Wright’s creative development in Liverpool at the start of the city’s cultural renaissance and growing status as a major world port. The Yale Center for British Art is the only US venue for the exhibition, which opens on May 22 and continues through August 31.
“Joseph Wright of Derby in Liverpool” features approximately 80 works, including more than 40 paintings and drawings by Wright, as well as works by his circle of friends and pupils in Liverpool. It also provides a look at the city during a period of economic expansion and political change. Wright’s arrival marked a turning point in the development of the city’s artistic culture, what one contemporary called a “Dawn of Taste.”
At the time, Liverpool was characterized by its extraordinarily mobile population, its commercial expansion and its uneasy involvement with the slave trade, which made many of its merchants’ fortunes. Wright’s highly realistic style was well suited to this environment. His account book, on display in the exhibition, lists many of the paintings he produced.
In 1769, for example, he completed a portrait on average every nine or ten days. Quite possibly the first portrait Wright painted in Liverpool was that of Richard Gildart, a former Liverpool mayor, merchant and slave trader. This captivating work depicts Gildart when he was 95 years old and is the only portrait dated 1768. Other portraits include those of Sarah Clayton, John Tarleton, Fleetwood and Frances Hesketh and Anna Ashton. During this period Wright also painted groups of people by candlelight. These historical pictures were not made for Liverpool patrons, but were to be exhibited and sold in London.
“Joseph Wright of Derby in Liverpool” curators are Elizabeth E. Barker, director and chief curator of the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, and Alex Kidson, curator of British Art at the Walker Art Gallery. The organizing curator at the Yale Center for British Art is Julia Marciari Alexander, associate director for exhibitions and publications.
Opened to the public in 1977, the Yale Center for British Art is the last building designed by American architect Louis I. Kahn. It is at 1080 Chapel Street. For information, www.yale.edu/ycba or 203-432-2800.
