290 
liant effets of light and fhade which 
eharaéterize cur variable atmofphere.* 
His health continued to decline, until at 
sength, oa the 29th of Auguft, 1797, he 
paid the great debt of nature, which was 
ao him a happy releafe from a tedious and 
painfal illnefs. In his perfon he was ra- 
ther above the middle fize, and, when 
young, was eftecmed a very handfome 
man; his company was then much court- 
ed on account of his pleafing vivacity and 
conyivial habits; his eyes were promi- 
nent and very expreflive ; in his manners 
he was mild, unafluming, modeit to an 
extreme, generous and full of fenfibility, 
with the perfect carriage of a gentleman; 
honourable and punétual in all his tranf- 
aclions, he entertaimmed the moft utter 
contempt for every thing like meannefs 
or ill:berality ; and his good heart felt 
buttoo poignantly for the mifcondudt of 
ethers.—lt may truly be obferved of him 
that he fedfaftiy a€ted on the principle of 
always continaing to learn; from con- 
verfarion, from examining pictures, and, 
above all, from the ftudy of nature, he 
was conftantly endeavouring to advance 
in the knowledge of his art; and to this 
habir, as wife as it was modeft, of confi- 
dering himfeif through life as a learner, 
no {mail fhare of his excellence may be 
aferibed. This difpofition was naturally 
attended with a candid readinefs to 
adopt, from the practice of other artifts, 
new modes of proceeding, when they ap- 
peared to him rational, and to make trial 
in ftudies on a {mall feale, of fuch as 
feemed in any tolerable degree promifing. 
To the judgment of his friends, who had 
dire&ted ary fhare of attention to land- 
feape, or other branches of his art, he 
was always ready to give, at thee very 
leaf, the weight which it deferved} and 
was foiicitous to draw forth their objec- 
tions and doubis, m order to profit by 
them. He well knew how defective and 
poor the higheft eiforts of art are, when. 
compared with the grandeur and beauty 
of nature, and fhewed at once his modefty 
and judgment, by exprefling this fenti- 
ment in the firongeft language. Land- 
{cape painters fometimes learn from ad- 

* A critic, whofe eccentricity of thought is 
’ more. admirabie than his candour, has fatyrized 
fome cf Mr. Wright’s water, as giving the idea 
ef vermicelli, on account of fome brilliant acci- 
dental lights; but, as that gentleman has never 
feen any of Mr. W’s. beft landfcapes, he cannot 
(even with the infpiration which his mufe may 
furnifh) be ‘acquainted with merits which he 
could net but admire, if they were tubmitted to 
his more tober Judgment. 
4 
= 
Original Memiirs of the late Mr. Wright of Derby. 
[O&, 
miring piétures, as imitations of nature, 
to admire nature merely as the imitation 
of a piéture, and proportion their appro- 
bation of any particular {cene, to the re- 
femblance which they fancy they difco- 
ver between it and the works of fome fa- 
vourite mafter ; but from this profeffional 
prejudice, Mr. Wright was entirely free, 
confidering nature as the beft of models. 
Simplicity and truth were the objeéts of 
his refearehes, and it is much to be la- 
mented that he could not be prevailed 
upon to commit his obfervations to wri- 
ting, to which he was frequently urged 
by his friends, who knew the rock upon 
which his theory of the art was eftablifh- 
ed, where nothing occurs to alarm fober 
judgment, nor to require voluminous 
explanations, which ferve only to bewil- 
der the underftanding. He daily follow- 
ed that excellent advice of du Frefnoy, 
which we lament is, in general, but too 
much difregarded. We {hall conclude 
our account of Mr. Wright in his private 
capacity asa man, with obferving that he, 
repeatedly evinced much liberality, by 
giving valuable piétures to individuals 
among his private friends, or to perfons 
to whom he thought himfelf obliged. In- 
various inftances thefe gifts were manifeftly 
diftinterefted ; and they were always con- 
ferred ina very pleafing manner which. 
declined rather than fought the ex-~ 
preffion cf gratitude. 
Amongft the principal of his early 
hiftorical piétures may be reckoned the 
Air Pump, Orrery, Academy, Hermit, 
Chemifi, Black{mith’s Forge, and others, 
which were painted prior to his vifiting 
Italy ; and, asthe fubjeéts were intereft- 
ing, they attracted, in a confiderable de- 
gree, the public atrention, and ferved to 
eitablith his reputation as an artit many 
years before the foundation of the Royal 
Academy. Immediately upon his return 
from Italy he exhibited fome pictures 
‘of Mount Vefuvius, under diferent ef- 
feéts, attending a memorable erupticm: 
which happened during his refidence at 
Naples ; and having likewife feen a mag~ 
nificent difplay of fireworks from the 
caltle of St. Angelo on the ele&tion of the 
prefent pope, he produced a furprifing 
picture of that extraordinary fpeétacle— 
thefe works going far beyond what had | 
hitherto been produced, procured him the 
higheft reputation in fire-light fubjects, 
in the painting of which he contrived an 
app2ratus purpofely for illuminating the, 
objects with artificial lights, whereby he 
was enabled to imitate the real tints of 
nature more accurately, than, perhaps 
=? 
