In the autumn of 2025, Wright of Derby: From the Shadows, a significant exhibition dedicated to Joseph Wright of Derby, will open at the National Gallery, in partnership with Derby Museums. It will be the first major exhibition dedicated to the British artist’s ‘candlelight’ paintings and features a number of masterpieces. The show will look at how Wright conjures these sublime pictures of discovery and learning through the interplay of light and darkness.

Derby Museums will be loaning seventeen artworks – including five of Wright’s best oil paintings – for the show, which will join with other paintings, mezzotints and objects to complete the exhibition. In 2026, Wright of Derby: From the Shadows, will travel to Derby Museum and Art Gallery, bringing two of Wright’s most famous works, ‘An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump’ (1768) and ‘A Philosopher giving that Lecture on the Orrery in which a lamp is put in place of the Sun’ (1766), back to his hometown for the first time in almost 80 years.

Wright of Derby: From the Shadows, is at the National Gallery from 7 November 2025 – 10 May 2026 and at Derby Museum and Art Gallery in the summer of 2026, dates to be announced in due course.

Listen to our Director Tony Butler OBE talk about Wright of Derby: From the Shadows here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0klhdm7

Find out more about the exhibition: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/about-us/press-and-media/press-releases/wright-of-derby-from-the-shadows