to have permanently affected his health by overwork, and by lying on his back on the stones of the chapel. He took with him his picture of the ‘Alchymist,’ which was much admired, and painted another called ‘The Captive’ (from Sterne), in which the attitude of the figure resembles that of Michael Angelo's Adam. The ‘Captive’ was exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1773. Among other places which he visited in Italy were Naples, Florence, and Bologna. He was disappointed with Florence, pleased with Bologna, but his letters and diary did not record admiration for any works of art outside Rome. On the whole his visit to Italy had no very important effect upon his figure-painting, and of all the sights he saw there none produced so great a change in his art as an eruption of Vesuvius. On one so fond of strange and strong effects of light, this stupendous scene naturally produced a profound impression, and he painted no fewer than eighteen pictures of it, the last in 1794. He was also much impressed by the scenery about Rome and the grandeur of its ruins, and the general result of his visit to Italy may be said to have been that he abandoned candlelight pieces for scenes of conflagration, and to some extent figure-painting for landscape. To the exhibition of the Society of Artists in 1776 he sent ‘An Eruption of Mount Vesuvius’ and ‘The Girandola at the Castle of St. Angelo at Rome.’ These pictures were purchased by the empress of Russia for 500l.
He arrived back in Derby on 26 Sept. 1775, and shortly afterwards went to Bath, where he thought to find an opening for a portrait-painter, as Gainsborough had recently left that city for London. In this he was disappointed. The Duchess of Cumberland sat to him, but her commission for a full-length dwindled to a head, and he got so few sitters that he felt that there were enemies at work against him. In 1777 he returned to Derby, where he lodged for a while with his friends the Eleys, removing to St. Helen's House in 1779. In his native town he found much employment as a portrait-painter, and eventually raised his prices to fifty guineas for a full-length, and ninety and a hundred and twenty guineas for a ‘conversation piece.’ In 1778 he began to exhibit at the Royal Academy, and continued to do so yearly till 1782. His contributions consisted chiefly of scenes in Italy, ‘Eruptions,’ ‘Girandolas,’ ‘Grottoes,’ and ‘Caverns,’ but comprised two beautiful and poetical figures—‘Edwin’ from Beattie's ‘Minstrel,’ for which Thomas Haden, a surgeon of Derby and one of the handsomest men in the town, served as a model (the figure was etched by Mr. F. Seymour Haden for Mr. Bemrose's life of the artist); and Sterne's ‘Maria,’ painted from Mrs. Bassano, also of Derby. In 1781 he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy, and in 1784 a full academician. The latter distinction he declined for reasons not precisely known, but he was angry with the academy for the way they hung his pictures, and because they elected Edmund Garvey [q. v.] before him. It is also said that he resented, as George Stubbs [q. v.] had done a year or two before, the rule that a member should deposit a picture with the academy before receiving his diploma. One result of his quarrel with the academy, which seems to have begun about 1782, was that he did not send any pictures to their exhibitions after that year until 1788. In 1783 he sent two pictures to the Free Society of Artists, and in 1785 he held a separate exhibition of twenty-five pictures at Mr. Robins's rooms in Covent Garden. In 1787 he sent some works to an exhibition at Derby. The exhibition in 1785 showed very fairly the extensive range of Wright's art. Its sentimental and poetical side was shown by the lady in Milton's ‘Comus;’ ‘The Widow of an Indian Chief’ watching her deceased husband's arms by moonlight; by ‘William and Margaret,’ a ghost scene from the ballad in Percy's ‘Reliques;’ ‘Julia, the daughter of Augustus’ (in a cavern); ‘The Maid of Corinth’ (painted for Josiah Wedgwood), and ‘Penelope,’ besides two scenes from the story of ‘Hero and Leander.’ There were also a few portraits and many landscapes, Italian and English, including ‘Matlock High Tor’ and a ‘Vesuvius.’ It also contained ‘A View of Gibraltar during the Destruction of the Spanish Floating Batteries on the 13th of Sept. 1782,’ which was bought by Mr. J. Milnes for 420l., the largest price received by the artist for any single picture. The quarrel with the academy was never healed, although Wright sent pictures to their exhibitions in 1788, 1789, 1790, and 1794. In 1790 a fresh cause of annoyance arose from the places assigned to two large pictures intended for Boydell's ‘Shakespeare.’ He exhibited them again the year after at the Society of Artists, with a note in the catalogue referring to their ‘unfortunate position’ at the academy, ‘owing (Mr. Wright supposes) to their having arrived too late in London.’
In 1794 he complained that his pictures at the academy were placed on the floor and injured by the feet of the visitors. He had also a quarrel with Boydell. The first pic-
