The brief:
When I was in Derby museum recently, I spent some time in a room devoted to the Victorian painter Joseph Wright of Derby. For those who don't know him, his most notable work is the fantastic Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump, which is a masterpiece of light and shade.
The room in the museum was full of his portraits - which are, I'm sad to say, mediocre. This one was painted fully 20 years after the Air Pump picture that made his name, yet the subject chose not to allow Wright to do the style he did best, and instead to paint a standard, uninspired work.
But what if Wright had been given his head on this one? How might this below average portrait have looked with some dramatic lighting? Anyone feel like reaching for the oil paints?
Finished work:
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