Thomas Day

The portrait of Thomas Day, painted in 1770 and now in the Manchester Art Gallery, depicts the eccentric author and social reformer who wrote Sandford and Merton, the bestselling children's novel published between 1783 and 1789. Day was a disciple of Rousseau's educational philosophy and an active member of the Lunar Society circle, which connected him directly to Wright's social and intellectual world in the East Midlands. He famously attempted to raise two orphan girls according to Rousseau's principles, intending to marry one of them when she reached adulthood — an experiment that failed spectacularly. Day's portrait by Wright captures the intellectual intensity and unconventional character of this remarkable figure, rendered with the direct observation that Wright reserved for sitters he knew personally and whose minds he respected. The Manchester portrait belongs to a crucial period in both men's careers: Wright was developing the candlelight subjects that would make him famous, while Day was formulating the educational and social ideas that would find expression in his later writing. The portrait represents the Lunar Society circle at its most vital, a community of progressive thinkers whose interconnections Wright's portraits collectively map.

The portrait captures Day's intense, unconventional character with Wright's characteristic psychological directness, using informal pose and lighting to convey the sitter's iconoclastic personality.