Portrait of a woman, called Sarah Carver, with her daughter Sarah; half-length, turned to the left, wearing a blue silk gown tied at the waist with a mustard coloured sash. On her wrist is a portrait minitaure of her husband attached to a black band. Her young duaghter wears a white gown, with a pink silk petticoat beneath, and a matching pink sash at her waist. On her head she wears a pink silk and feather headdress. Young Sarah offers up two cherries to a parrot, which peeps out from the branches of a tree to her left. Behind them a wide landscape opens out, over which a dramatic deep grey sky looms. Painted by Joseph Wright of Derby (1734 - 1797). Oil on canvas in gilded frame.

Exhibitions:

  • Title: Wright of Derby: The Bi-centenary Exhibition of Paintings by Joseph Wright
    Venue: Derby Corporation Art Gallery
    Dates: from 03/09/1934 to 18/11/1934
  • Title: Pictures by Joseph Wright of Derby
    Venue: Graves Art Gallery
    Dates: from 17/07/1950 to 27/07/1950
  • Title: Joseph Wright of Derby
    Venue: Norwich Castle Museum
    Dates: from 03/01/1959 to 01/02/1959
  • Title: Joseph Wright of Derby, 1734 - 1797
    Venue: Derby Museum and Art Gallery
    Dates: from to
  • Title: Joseph Wright of Derby: An Exhibition to Commemorate the Centenary of Derby Museums and Art Gallery
    Venue: Derby Museum and Art Gallery
    Dates: from 21/04/1979 to 21/07/1979
  • Title: Extraordinary Portraits of Ordinary People: Paintings by Emma Tooth and Joseph Wright
    Venue: Derby Museum and Art Gallery
    Dates: from 03/07/2010 to 12/09/2010
  • Title: Joseph Wright of Derby: An Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings Arranged by the Arts Council
    Venue: Walker Art Gallery
    Dates: from 16/04/2026 to

Publications

  • Title: Joseph Wright of Derby 1734 - 1797
    Sub-Title: An introduction to the work of Joseph Wright of Derby with a catalogue of drawings held by Derby Museum and Art Gallery. Published on the occasion of an exhibition commemorating the Bicentenary of the artist's death.
    Published Place: Derby
    Published Year: 1997
  • Title: Joseph Wright of Derby: Painter of Light
    Sub-Title: Volume 1
    Volume: 1
    Published Place: London
    Copyright: Benedict Nicolson, 1968
    Published Year: 1968

Related People

  • Sarah Carver (Content)

    Display Date: British, dates unknown

    Nationality: British

    Biography: Daughter of Thomas Allen of Eyam, Derbyshire, and his wife Elizabeth Middleton. Married Reverend John Carver (1740-1807) of Eckington in 1763 and had issue: Sarah Carver (born 1765) and Marmaduke Middleton Middleton Carver (1771-1848). Marmaduke Middleton Middleton Carver married Mary Ann Athorpe of Dinnigton Hall, Yorkshire in 1801.

  • Joseph Wright of Derby (Artist)

    Display Date: British, 1734 - 1797

    Nationality: British

    Biography: Artist.

  • Sarah Carver (Content)

    Display Date: British, born 1765

    Nationality: British

    Biography: Daughter of Reverend John Carver (1740-1807) of Eckington and his wife, Sarah (nee Allen), of Eyam.

  • Reverend John Carver (Content)

    Display Date: British, 1740 - 1807

    Nationality: British

    Biography: Of Eckington, near Sheffield. Married Sarah Carver (nee Allen) in 1763 and had issue: Sarah Carver (born 1765) and Marmaduke Middleton Middleton Carver (1771-1848).

Portrait of Sarah Carver and her daughter Sarah

Date: 1769-1770

Medium: Oil on canvas.

Object Type:Painting
Dimensions:Frame: 1420 × 1169 mm (55 7/8 × 46 in.) Support: 1270 × 1016 mm (50 × 40 in.)
Description:Joseph Wright’s approach to portraiture was often plain and direct by comparison with that of his fashionable London-based contemporaries Joshua Reynolds or Thomas Gainsborough and this painting is no exception. Nevertheless, his honest portraits were popular among the merchants, industrialists, and gentry that dominated local society, many of whom prized honesty over flattery. Sarah Carver was a woman of prospects. She was the wife of clergyman John Carver, of Morthen in South Yorkshire, whose portrait miniature appears on a bracelet on her wrist. She was also heiress to her mother’s property Leam Hall, at Grindleford in Derbyshire. Wright presents her as a strong and caring mother, supported by inherited wealth and her marriage.
Provenance:Not listed in Wright's Account Book; with Mrs Gregory Rose-Innes, of Grindleford (the great-great granddaughter of the sitter), by 1934, by whom donated to Derby Museums in 1946.
Viewing Status:Contact Us
Item Ref:1946-31
Browse Collection
Browse Collection