Portrait of Peter Perez Burdett and His First Wife Hannah

The cartographer Peter Perez Burdett was a close friend of Joseph Wright of Derby. The painter represented Perez with his first wife. Hannah was older than Peter Perez, he married her as a widow. This marriage was probably financially advantageous for him, helping him to complete his work on the map of Derbyshire. The suggested inequality in the marriage is obvious even in this portrait, showing casually smart Perez, and his meticulously and luxuriously dressed wife. Moreover, the portrayed Hannah is divided from Peter Perez by the horizontal logs of the fence. The signed and dated portrait of astonishing size (the largest canvas created by Wright until then) was probably shown at the exhibition of the Society of Artists in 1765. Wright of Derby, who spent most of his lifetime in the native Derby, was particularly famous and appreciated as a portraitist.