The Age of Reason
Wright of Derby in context
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A recording of this event will be made available to all ticket holders in the days following the event.
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No artist exists in a vacuum (or, indeed, an air pump) and Wright of Derby is no exception.
Art historian Rebecca Marks situates Wright within the intellectual and artistic world of the Enlightenment. She explains how his paintings reflect the key themes of the period – inquiry, progress, and modernity – in their symbolism, method and purpose.
Drawing on what Wright read, who he knew, and what he saw, the talk will illuminate how his paintings responded to debates about science and religion, the rise of the public sphere, and theories of the sublime.
By placing him in context, this fascinating talk helps us better understand how his art fits into history and find parallels with our own age.
You can also join Rebecca in-person at our salon series 'At the time of Wright of Derby'.
Speaker
Dr Rebecca Marks is an art and literary historian specialising in Romanticism. She completed her PhD on William Blake at the University of Cambridge in 2025 and runs a popular art-and-humanities online newsletter, ‘The Culture Dump’. She is currently working on a book on the Gothic for Penguin (Ebury), out in 2027.
Watch again
A recording of this event will be made available to all ticket holders in the days following the event.
This recording will be available for two weeks.
Closed captions
Automatic closed captioning is available for this event.