Not Quite Wright

This picture, which was acquired in 1950 by the Derby Museum and Art Gallery as a work by Joseph Wright, had remained in its stores for almost 70 years. It was never displayed and staff doubted that it could have been painted by Wright due to its poor and untypical appearance.

Working with the team of the BBC's Britain's Lost Masterpieces television programme, the painting was sent to the restoration studio of expert Simon Gillespie. There it was found that the canvas had been almost entirely repainted by a local restorer back in the fifties, who decided to alter many aspects of the scene, from the colour of the sky to the fashion worn by the figures. As a result, the painting looked like a work painted in the later 1900s, not the 1700s. The later, overpaint was removed, revealing a work of extraordinary quality, full of Wright's signature techniques. These included his method of painting water by incising the wet paint with the handle of his paintbrush, a technique known as sgrafito.

Research by Dr Bendor Grosvenor identified the bridge as the Ponte Nomentano, an ancient Roman crossing over the river Aniene just outside Rome. Wright studied and painted Roman bridges on this stretch of river on his tour of Italy in the 1770s. The discovery of a catalogue for a sale of Wright's paintings at Christie's in London on 6th May, 1801, included a painting described as 'A View of the Ponte Nomentano near Rome, unfinished', then valued at a mere £3. It is now displayed at Derby among Wright's other works at the town's gallery, assuming its rightful place among those others of the collection.

Much of what appears to be genuine often turns out to be fake, but the opposite may also be true: that which we dismiss as nonsense or false may in fact be the truth. Christianity is regarded by many Britons in this way, but take away the cheap glosses of church scandals and individual hypocrites, and the truth of Christ may still be seen, embraced and enjoyed.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 2 Cor. 4:7, NKJV