CivicLAB event: Enlightenment, Sociability and Provincial Culture: Erasmus Darwin, Joseph Wright and Friends

Tuesday 27th May 10:30am, Artcore DE1 2DS

Talk by Professor Paul Elliott, Professor of Modern History at the University of Derby

In 1796 the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge visited Derby and declared it was ‘full of curiosities, the cotton, the silk mills, Wright, the painter, and Dr. Darwin, the everything, except the Christian!’ Certainly, the physician Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) and artist Joseph Wright (1732-97) are two of the most famous British eighteenth-century figures. One as evolutionary thinker, writer, inventor and Lunar Society member, the other as creator of some of the most characteristic portraits of the age and iconic Enlightenment artworks including The Orrery (1766) and Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1768). 

Whilst Darwin and Wright were increasingly bound together as leading ‘celebrities’ of eighteenth-century Derby, through their productions they became part of - as well as promoters of - tourist itineraries to the county town, Derbyshire and the Peak. 

However, they were also associated by much more and as Wright’s health declined, he became increasingly dependent upon Darwin as friend, doctor and artistic counsellor. Yet there has never been a detailed study of the relationship between Darwin and Wright until now or the impact this had upon each other’s work has hitherto received little analysis. Heralding publication of: Enlightenment, Sociability and Provincial Culture: Erasmus Darwin. Joseph Wright and Friends by Manchester University Press, this talk explores aspects of their personal, artistic, and literary relationship and networks in an age of urban renaissance, industrial innovation and intellectual effervescence.

CivicLAB is based at the University of Derby. The city is a UNESCO City of Life Long Learning and home to World Heritage Sites. CivicLAB has been designed to support academics, creative & cultural industry professionals, freelance creatives and the public to share their insights on research and practice through a place-based approach to knowledge generation.

Find out more: @Derby_Civic
www.derby.ac.uk/civicAll