From the “Memoirs of the life of Dr. Darwin.” By Anna Seward.
“In the course of the year 1770, Mr. Day stood for a full-length picture[41] to Mr. Wright, of Derby. A strong likeness, and a dignified portrait were the result. Drawn as in the open air, the surrounding sky is tempestuous, lurid, and dark. He stands leaning his left arm against a column inscribed to Hampden. Mr. Day looks upward as enthusiastically meditating on the contents of a book, held in his dropped right hand. The open leaf is the oration of that virtuous patriot in the senate, against the grant of ship money demanded by King Charles the First. A flash of lightning plays in Mr. Day’s hair, and illuminates the contents of the volume. The poetic fancy and what were then the politics of the original, appear in the choice of subject and attitude. Dr. Darwin sat to Mr. Wright about the same period. The result was a simply contemplative portrait[42] of the most perfect resemblance.”
Miss Meteyard, in her life of Wedgwood, says in Vol. II., page 442:—“Wedgwood in the previous year (1778) had bespoken a picture of Wright, of Derby, who, neglected by his countrymen ‘would,’ as Wedgwood said, ‘starve as a painter if the Empress of Russia had not some taste and sense to buy these pictures now, which we may wish the next century to purchase again at treble the price she now pays for them.’ Soon after this Wright tried enamel painting, and towards the close of 1779 he promised to visit Etruria and ‘catch any help from its fires;’ but it is not till subsequently that we hear of the fine picture he painted for Wedgwood.”
Again, on page 508, Miss Meteyard writes:—“In 1784 Wright, of Derby, painted for Wedgwood his celebrated picture of the Maid of Corinth, as also a portrait which was probably that of the very friend who had as far as possible replaced Bentley in his heart, Erasmus Darwin. After some critical remarks on female drapery, Wedgwood, in writing to the painter, said of the Maid of Corinth:—
“I do not say I am satisfied with the lover, but that I think it excellent, I had almost said inimitable, & I should quake for any future touch of your pencil there. It is unfortunate, in my opinion, that the maid shows so much of her back; but I give my opinion only, with great diffidence and submission to your better judgment. In one word, you have been so happy in your figure of the lover, that almost any other must appear to disadvantage in so near a comparison. Make her to please yourself, and I shall be perfectly satisfied.”
“Six years previously Wright had painted for Mr. Wedgwood one of his most celebrated pictures. Writing to Bentley the latter says:—‘I am glad to hear that Mr. Wright is in the land of the living. I should like to have a piece of this gentleman’s art, but think Debutades’ daughter would be a more apropos subject for me than the Alchymist, though my principal reason for having this subject would be a sin against the costume. I mean the introduction of our vases into the piece, for how could such fine things be supposed to exist in the earliest infancy of the potter’s art? You know what I want, & when you see Mr. Wright again, I wish you would consult with him upon the subject. Mr. Wright once began a piece in which our vases might be introduced with the greatest propriety. I mean the handwriting upon the Wall in the Palace of Belshazzar.’—Wedgwood to Bentley, May 5, 1778.”
Upon enquiry as to the present locality of the pictures Wright painted for Wedgwood, we regret to learn that they were all lost to the family early in the present century. It appears that they were sent to some person in London for Exhibition, or for the purpose of being cleaned, and whilst there were distrained for rent. The pictures were dispersed and beyond recall before the Wedgwoods could interfere.
One of these pictures, a “Portrait of Sir Richard Arkwright,” was some years afterwards presented to the Manchester Royal Exchange by Edmund Buckley, Esq., where it now hangs.
On page 26, mention has been made of the friendship which existed between Wedgwood and Wright, exemplified by Wright giving a painting “to his friend Jos. Wedgwood, the patron and encourager of living artists.” This friendship and generosity Wedgwood emulated upon the occasion of the marriage of Wright’s daughter, Anna Romana, to Mr. Cade, by the gift of a dinner service of 150 pieces.
Mr. F. G. Stephens sends me the following interesting copy of an autograph letter:—
“Derby, 12th October, 1788.
To Miss Seward,[43] Lichfield.
Madam,
“I have repeatedly read your charming poem. The subject you hold out for my pencil, as you have treated it, is an excellent one; but how to paint a flaming sword baffles my art. However, as soon as I find myself stout enough, I intend to attack it. I admire the scenery. Would it strengthen or weaken the character to lay it near the sea, upon a rising ground, and through an opening among the trees low in the picture to see the moon just rising above a troubled sea? The point of time is when the sword is rising out of the tomb, what kind of tomb should it be? To make it a regular one would indicate Herver’s father had the usual funeral rites performed, which the poem, I think, contradicts. Your reflections upon this point will greatly oblige,
“Madam,
“Your most obedient hble servt,
“JOSH WRIGHT.
“P.S.—Dr. Darwin, I hope, explained his mistake in returning the poem before I had done with it.”
“May 5th, 1789.
Mr. Hayley to Mrs. Hayley.
“I shall beg you & Mrs. Beridge to call upon friend Wright & tell him, from me, that I & all the lovers of painting with whom I have conversed, since my return to town, consider his pictures this year as the flower of the Royal Exhibition. His ‘Dying Soldier’ made me literally shed tears, his ‘Moonlight’ enchanted.”
“Towards the end of August, 1776, Hayley and Mrs. Hayley went to Derby for the pleasure of congratulating their friend Dr. Beridge on a most seasonable marriage, that restored him from a state of perilous discomfort to health and happiness. This visit was productive of various delights. Hayley not only sympathised in the happiness of the restored Physician, but in the weeks that he passed under his friend’s roof he had the gratification of cultivating an intimacy with Wright, the admirable painter of Derby, who, having injured his health by too assiduous application to his art, had great comfort in the kind attention he received from the friendly physician, & took a pleasure in executing for Hayley two hasty portraits in chiaro-oscuro of Mrs. Beridge & her husband, after painting for the Doctor the Poet of Sussex and his ‘Eliza.’”[44]
The following is extracted from the “Life of Wm. Hayley, Esq.” by John Johnson, LL.D., Rector of Welborne, in Norfolk:—“Hayley went to Cambridge in 1763. Here he formed an intimate friendship with Thornton, Beridge, & Clyfford, whose custom it was to breakfast together in the apartments of each other. Hayley devoted some months of the year 1772 to his highly-valued friend Beridge, who had settled as a physician at Derby. Hayley then copied in water-colours two bold sketches of scenery near Matlock, lent to him by the very amiable artist Wright, of Derby, with whom he began this year an intimacy that lasted to the death of the painter, who frequently in his letters consulted his friend of Sussex on the subjects of his pencil.”
The following extract is from the Quarterly Review, “Memoirs, &c., of Wm. Hayley”:—
“Hayley’s son (Thomas Alphonso, the sculptor), was then in his thirteenth year.... It had been Hayley’s first intention to educate his son for the profession of physic, but many circumstances combined to give him a strong inclination for that of the arts. During a visit to Mrs. Hayley, Wright, of Derby, perceived in him so much aptitude for painting, that he took pains in instructing him; and upon the report of his progress, Flaxman wrote to his father, saying, ‘If you have not quite determined to make him a physician, and if you think he has talents for the Fine Arts, show yourself my friend indeed, and accept my offer as frankly as I make it.’”
The offer was accepted, but this promising young artist died, after a long illness, a few years later.
Extract from a letter from T. A. Hayley to his father, the poet:—
“Your letter to Mr. Wright, I delivered to his daughter, who happened to be with us when it arrived, and he has been since so good as to give me a few instructions in drawing.”
“A cordial friendship had long existed between Wright, the admirable painter, of Derby, and the father of Alphonso; but the latter, in writing to his friend, had only requested him to gratify the little traveller with the permission of sometimes passing a leisure hour in his painting-room, and with the indulgence of seeing him exercise his pencil. The amiable artist, with that warm benevolence which formed a striking part of his character, went beyond the request of his old friend, and being more and more pleased with the intelligence, spirit, and docility of his little visitor, spontaneously bestowed on him such repeated instructions, as perfectly awakened in him a passion and a genius for art, which, being afterwards inspirited by the affectionate encouragement of his father, of Romney, and of Flaxman, ultimately changed his very early professional destination from medicine to sculpture.”
Mr. Hayley to Mrs. Hayley.
“I am infinitely pleased with the first-fruits of the little man’s northern pencil, and charmed with the kindness of my friend Wright, in condescending to instruct such an urchin.”
T. A. Hayley to Mr. Hayley.
“I continue to draw, and you will be glad to hear with the approbation of my great master. I shall have a great collection of performances to show you when we meet. I hope it will not be long before that happy moment arrives.”
Mr. Hayley to T. A. Hayley.
“I did not, I believe, send your medallion of Romney to our amiable friend Wright. I wish you to present him such a becoming mark of your gratitude for the extreme kindness that we have ever received from him. Would to heaven I could send him a good portion of health and spirits to attend your interesting offering to the very amiable invalid. From all of him I collect from Meyer, I fear his pencil has been very inactive for some time. I always grieve when men of talents are condemned by ill-health to involuntary indolence; and I doubly grieve when that misfortune falls upon a friend whose works I have often surveyed with delight.”
The following letter relates to the picture of the “Alchymist,” now belonging to the Derby Corporation Art Gallery, having been presented to that Town as a memorial to the painter, by a few of his admirers, in 1883:—
“Dear Wright,
“Dr. Turner will in his letter be more particular than I can possibly be on a subject to which I am a stranger. I have conceived that the chemist should be sitting on this side the table, & turning his head towards glass upon his assistant exclaiming upon the first appearance of the luminous exhalation from the Retort into receiver of the phenomenon. The lamp is still under the influence of the blast of wind remaining in the bellows below which the chemist has been using in another process. Whether this idea of the flame will in the least answer your purpose you alone can judge; you will wonder when you are told that I am painting History without figure, Landscape without trees, and Shipwreck without water. Mrs. Burdett joins me in love, compliments, and everything else to your Family.
“Yrs sincerely,
“J. P. BURDETT.
“Liverpool, Feby. 4, 1771.”
From a letter on page 27, it appears that Wright took this picture with him to Rome in 1774, where it was much admired.
GIRL WITH A BLADDER.
Original picture in the possession of Mr. F. C. Arkwright, Willersley, Cromford, Derbyshire.
CONVERSATION PIECE.
Three Children, Richard, Robert, and Peter (Sons of Richard Arkwright).
Original picture in possession of Mr. F. C. Arkwright, Willersley, Cromford, Derbyshire.
