Portrait of a gentleman, seated three-quarter-length, in a brown coat and breeches, with a dog; and Portrait of a lady, three-quarter-length, in a blue dress and lace collar and cuffs, standing in a landscape

By 1760, Joseph Wright of Derby, following his training under Thomas Hudson and John Hamilton Mortimer, had established a successful practice painting portraits of wealthy middle-class sitters in Derby and its environs. In the early months of that year, Wright made a tour of the neighbouring Midland towns to the east, including Retford, Lincoln, Newark, Boston, Thorne and Doncaster. It seems highly likely that it was during this tour that Wright painted the present pictures, which can be compared stylistically with his portraits of William Pigot and his wife Elizabeth (1760; see B. Nicolson, Joseph Wright of Derby, Painter of Light, London & New York, 1968, I, p. 217, nos. 120 & 121; II, p. 12, pls. 23 & 24). The portrait of the unidentified gentleman here is also strikingly similar to that of Elizabeth’s father, William Brooke, who also sat to Wright in 1760. The frame on the Brooke portrait, which was made by the Huguenot frame-maker, John Dubourg, with whom Wright had an account, compares closely with the frames on the present pictures (see P. Mitchell, ‘Wright’s Picture Frames’ in Wright of Derby, exhibition catalogue, London, 1990, p. 273, fig. 1).

We are grateful to Brian Allen for confirming the attribution after inspection of the originals and for his assistance with this entry.