The Reverend Henry Case, later The Reverend Henry Case-Morewood (1746/7-1825)

This 1782 portrait of the Reverend Henry Case (later Case-Morewood) depicts a Derbyshire clergyman who was the companion portrait to his wife Ellen Goodwin. Wright painted numerous Derbyshire clergy, reflecting the social centrality of the Church in provincial Georgian England. 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...

The portrait presents the clergyman with Wright's characteristic directness and naturalism, with warm lighting and careful attention to the features that convey both ecclesiastical dignity and personal character.