Joseph Wright of Derby
Lecture by Dr Richard Stemp
St Anne’s Soho and National Gallery
Coffee · Lecture · Lunch · Exhibition
12th November 2025
This major exhibition will be dedicated to Joseph Wright’s ‘candlelight’ paintings: intimate scenes of illuminated faces gathered around classical sculptures and scientific instruments. In these images, Wright uses night-time to explore themes of death, melancholy, morality, scepticism, and the sublime. Known most predominantly as an Enlightenment painter, this exhibition strives to continue the re-evaluation of the artist as more than just a ‘painter of light’, and instead as one engaging with deeper and more sombre themes.
Bringing together paintings, prints, and preparatory studies, the exhibition situates Wright within the broader cultural moments of his time – a period of scientific, philosophical and artistic development in the 17th and 18th century. It will include the fantastic paintings Three Persons Viewing the Gladiator by Candlelight (1765), A Philosopher Giving that Lecture on the Orrery in Which a Lamp is Put in Place of the Sun (1766), and the National Gallery’s An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1768), marking the first time in 35 years that all these works can be seen together.
The lecture by Dr Richard Stemp will prepare you for the exhibition so that you can make the most of your time in the gallery and gain the greatest insight into the works. Please join us for lunch afterwards at a restaurant nearby.
Order of Events
10.30 Coffee at St Anne’s Church, Soho
11.00 Lecture for Artemisia Members at St Anne’s Church Soho by Dr Richard Stemp
12.30 Lunch nearby
14.00 Exhibition at National Gallery Wright of Derby: From the Shadows
COSTS
Coffee Complimentary
Lecture £27.00 + (£2.96 booking fee)
Lecture and Lunch (2 courses, wine and coffee) £72.00 + (£6.71 booking fee)
BookPlease note you must purchase your own tickets to the exhibition from the National Gallery website. This allows you to choose the time you want to enter and to use any discounts or memberships you may have.
*Tickets available from 17th June
If you would like further information please email me on [email protected] or call 01379 871800.
