Mrs. John Ashton 1769

Joseph Wright of Derby painted this portrait of Mrs. John Ashton, an upper-middle-class woman, during a time of shifting social expectations in England. Wright, deeply embedded in the Enlightenment, often portrayed industrialists, scientists, and philosophers. Here, instead, he offers us a sensitive portrayal of a woman, book in hand. She is self-possessed, and in contrast to the male intellectuals that Wright painted, she occupies an interior space. The softness in the rendering of her face stands in marked contrast to the hard, angular quality that characterized Wright’s depictions of men. Consider the implications of a woman being portrayed with a book during this period. What possibilities does education afford her? How does it shape her identity and her role within the domestic sphere? Wright asks us to consider the position of women in a rapidly changing society, inviting us to contemplate their intellectual capacity and social agency.