‘Painting Faces’ Being a Life of that Capital Artist, Joseph Wright of Derby

About the Event

Explore Wright’s many lives in Steve Farnsworth’s Painting Faces - a vivid, art-filled journey.

We all think we know a little about Joseph Wright, but there is remarkably little first-hand evidence of the sort of man he was. There are about 60 letters, a fragmentary travel journal of his time in Italy, and a memoire written by his niece 50 years after his death. No diaries, no great public record, just all those pictures and drawings….Much now lies beyond our reach, but there is sufficient to be able to re-imagine him, using everything that we do know. He was melancholic and he was a hypochondriac. He married a much younger woman, not at all from the social class he was brought up in, and completely unexpectedly, he eloped with her and headed to Italy. They came back nearly broke and with a daughter and a dog. Then he had to re-establish himself as an artist who could sell. It was uphill, but he did it and, after his wife’s early death, he went on to die a wealthy, but rather forlorn, reclusive man. Along the way he was thrown in with some of the most eminent men of his age: Darwin, Whitehurst, Burdett, Wedgwood, Arkwright and many more ~ Coleridge even came to visit him. Now that Wright’s star has finally risen ~ and it was greatly dimmed all the way from his death in 1797 until the 1960’s ~ he is finally getting some serious attention. Come along to Steve Farnsworth’s talk where he will explore the many different phases of Wright’s life and work, all drawn from his new biographical novel, ‘Painting Faces’.

Booking essential. Please contact Mickleover Library to book your space or call 01332 647884.

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