Short answers, pulled from the story.
Joseph Wright of Derby (the 3rd of September 1734 - the 29th of August 1797) was an English painter specialising in portraiture and landscape art. He is acclaimed as the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution, and is especially known for his tenebristic candlelit scenes depicting scientific experiments.
Wright used tenebrism, an exaggerated form of chiaroscuro that creates extreme contrast between light and dark. He applied this technique to candlelit subjects, night landscapes, and scenes of scientific demonstration, producing dramatic illumination effects that set his work apart from contemporaries.
Wright was not a formal member of the Lunar Society but was brought into its orbit through his friendship with Erasmus Darwin, who treated Wright for asthma and nervous complaints. Two of his most important patrons, Josiah Wedgwood and Richard Arkwright, were associated with the Society's network of scientists and industrialists.
An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, painted in 1768, is held in the National Gallery. A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery (1766), another of Wright's celebrated scientific paintings, is in the Derby Museum and Art Gallery.
Painted in 1771, the work depicts the discovery of the element phosphorus by German alchemist Hennig Brand in 1669, showing a flask of boiled urine bursting into spontaneous flame. The image carries metaphorical weight, representing the transition from religious faith to scientific understanding during the Enlightenment.
Wright was originally buried in the grounds of St Alkmund's Church, Derby, which was demolished in 1968 for a ring road; his remains were moved to Nottingham Road Cemetery. In 2002 his tombstone was installed inside Derby Cathedral. His birthplace at 28 Irongate bears an armillary sphere on the pavement, and the Joseph Wright Centre at Derby College, opened in 2005, carries his name.