In 1777, Wright does not appear to have exhibited at all, but in the next year he commenced to send pictures to the Royal Academy, a practice he continued with some interruptions until 1794.

Pictures Exhibited by Joseph Wright at the Exhibitions of the Royal Academy.

1778.
No.357.An Eruption of Mount Vesuvius, with the Procession of St.Januarius’s Head.
„358.A Grotto by the Sea-side, in the Kingdom of Naples, withBanditti; a Sunset.
„359.Edwin, from Dr. Beattie’s Minstrel.
„360.Sterne’s Captive.
„361.The Girandola, a grand firework exhibited at the Castle ofSt. Angelo, in Rome.
„411.Neptune’s Grotto at Tivoli.
1779.
„358.The Girandola, or Grand Firework at the Castle of St.Angelo, in Rome; Companion to the Vesuvius he painted last year.
„359.Virgil’s Tomb, with the Figure of Scilius Italicus, whobought an estate enriched with this very tomb. He wasfrequent in his visits to this monument of his master.
„360.Neptune’s Grotto at Tivoli.
„361.Two Boys, whole length.
1780.
„158.Eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
„203.A Cavern, with the Figure of Julia, banished thither byher grandfather, Augustus.
1781.
„23.A Philosopher by Lamplight.
„61.Cavern in the Gulf of Salernum, Sunset.
„100.Maria, from Sterne, a companion to the Picture of Edwin,exhibited three years ago.
„112.Cavern in the Gulf of Salernum, Moonlight.
„181.Portraits of Three Children.
„224.Virgil’s Tomb by Moonlight.
„245.Portrait of a Gentleman.
1782.
„165.Two Young Gentlemen in the Character of Archers.
„231.Old Man’s Head, in the character of an Apostle.
1788.
„81.Mæcena’s Villa at Tivoli.
„83.Cicero’s Villa, near Salerno.
„96.View near Mare Chiare, on the shore of Paussillipo.
„98.The Convent of St. Cosimato, near Vicobaro, and Remains ofthe Claudian Aqueduct, on the River Arno.
„234.View in the Alps, on the side next Italy, in the Duchy of Milan.
1789.
„9.A Moonlight.
„26.Cicero’s Villa, an Evening.
„67.The Prison of the Capitol.
„74.Ruins of the Colloseo, in Rome.
„87.A Boy and Girl Engaged with a Bladder.
„107.Ruins of the Colloseo, in Rome, with Banditti.
„137.View of Cromford, near Matlock.
„153.A Girl Blowing a Charcoal Stick.
„236.A Dead Soldier, his Wife and Child, vide Langhorne’s Poems.
1790.
„1.Romeo and Juliet, Act V., Scene last.
„221.Scene from the “Winter’s Tale,” Act iii., latter end of thesixth scene.
1794.
„107.An Eruption of Vesuvius.
„232.A Lake at Dunkeld, in Scotland, Evening.
„233.A Village on Fire.
Total, 40 Pictures.

From the foregoing list of Wright’s contributions to Exhibitions of the Royal Academy, it will be noticed that he did not send any between the years 1782 and 1788. This abstention was caused by his resentment at the conduct of the Academy, in consequence of which he refused the full diploma which the Royal Academy offered to him in 1784.

From the following extract from the Athenæum of January 31st, 1885, it appears that Wright was not the only artist of distinction who at that period had to complain of the treatment of the Council of the Royal Academy.

“In the archives of the Royal Academy is a letter which has special interest. It is a complaint addressed by Gainsborough to the Council of the Academy, about the manner in which his most important contribution to the gathering of 1784 had been treated, being placed in a position, he says, unbecoming its character as a group of Royal portraits, and unjust to himself as a R.A. In the end, with several other works the artist left at the Hanging Committee’s discretion, the picture was withdrawn, so that the Academy gathering of 1784 comprised no Gainsborough.

“The artist abandoned the Academy altogether, and during the four remaining years of his life, he sent no more pictures.”

The doors of the Academy being thus practically closed to Wright, he determined on another plan for bringing his works under public notice. In 1785 he opened an exhibition, composed of twenty-five of his own pictures, at Mr. Robins’s Rooms, Covent Garden, London. This is an early instance of those exhibitions devoted to the compositions of a single artist which have of late become so frequent. In the catalogue of it which we are enabled to reprint, it will be noticed that fifteen out of the twenty-five works exhibited were not for sale.