| Several of Joseph Wright's paintings, executed after his Grand Tour of Italy (1773–75), are examined in light of the artist's intellectual interests in natural and moral philosophy that he shared with his friends in the Lunar Society of Birmingham and the Derby Philosophical Society. Among the philosophical subjects treated in the discussion of the painter's works are geology, mining, manufacture, botany, and sensibility. Each of these pursuits had a nationalistic purpose in accordance with the discourse of British Physiocratic economics. I demonstrate how Wright's landscapes, portraits and history paintings from this period evidence his intellect, socioeconomic status, and cultural role in the British Enlightenment. |
