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:—