Portrait of Susannah Hope
Portrait of Susannah Hope (1744 – 1807) c1761 by British Painter Joseph Wright (1734 – 1797); an acclaimed landscape and portrait painter credited as the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution.
This is a portrait of a young lady known as Susannah Hope posed in the typical dress of the time worn by the landed gentry.
She is wearing a pearl linked piece of body jewelry that has on the end of it a miniature portrait of her new husband the Reverend Charles Hope.
Her blue satin dress is composed of three parts staring with a center corset, an attached large skirt that has an additional garment over it; while the corset portion has attached to orange sleeves with additional sheer over sleeves and a half brimmed grey hat with a feather on it and a pearl hanging of the edge of the short brim.
She is leaning against a tall pedestal that has a large covered urn; and behind that a collection of large trees and a cloud filled blue sky at sunset.
This is a remastered digital art old masters reproduction of a public domain image that is available as a rolled canvas print online.
About The Artist
Joseph Wright of Derby was an 18th century British painter who specialized in creating portraits and landscape scenes; and was recognized as the first professional painter that expressed the spirit of the Industrial Revolution.
He was born in Irongate, Derby to a respectable family of lawyers as the third of five children to John Wright (1697 – 1767) and Hannah Brookes (1700 – 1764); and decided to become a painter at the age of seventeen in 1751, and studied under the British Painter Thomas Hudson (1701 – 1779) for two years.
His work is characterized by a striking use of light and shadow, as well as a keen attention to detail; and some of his most famous works include “An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump” c1768 and “The Old Water-Mill” c1771-72, with both of these paintings being considered to be masterpieces of the “Industrial Revolution” genre, depicting the technological advancements of the time.
