William Pigot (1729–1782)

This portrait of William Pigot from around 1760 represents Wright's early portrait practice in the Midlands, before he developed the dramatic candlelit subjects that would bring him fame. Wright's early portraits served the Derby gentry and established his reputation as a reliable and perceptive portraitist. Joseph Wright of Derby's portraits served the prosperous industrial and professional class of the English Midlands — manufacturers, engineers, merchants, and professional men whose social ambitions required the dignity of oil portraiture while their practical identities differed markedly from the aristocratic subjects of Reynolds or Gainsborough. Wright's portraits have the quality of his genre paintings transposed to the portrait format: the subjects are observed with complete attention and rendered with technical mastery, but the social context — the emerging industrial capitalism of the Midlands, the specific world of Derby and its surrounding towns — gives his portraits their distinctive character as documents of a new social class.

The early portrait shows Wright developing the naturalistic approach to characterization that would distinguish his work, with careful attention to the sitter's individual features and social bearing.