Samuel Crompton (c.1720–1782)

This 1780 portrait of Samuel Crompton depicts a member of the Derbyshire gentry (not to be confused with the inventor of the spinning mule). Wright's steady production of portraits for the local gentry provided the financial foundation for his more experimental works. Wright mastered oil on canvas chiaroscuro effects inspired by Dutch nocturnal painters and Caravaggio, creating scenes lit by single artificial sources—candles, furnaces, molten metal—that gave his subjects a dramatic, almost...

The portrait follows Wright's established format for male subjects, with careful characterization and natural lighting that convey the sitter's personality with unaffected directness.