Was Joseph Wright of Derby Britain’s answer to Caravaggio? He was a painter of light: candlelight, moonlight and fire.
But he also painted another kind of light, the light of knowledge. His magical, near-photographic works give us an insight into a unique period of time: the British enlightenment. Wright of Derby painted a society on the brink of change, when a shift was taking place between religious ways of thinking, to a more ‘scientific’ approach. His works raises poignant questions about ethics, morality and man’s power over life and death.