01
July 2026

Sensation and Sensibility

Dukeries
Wednesday, July 1, 2026 - 11:00
The Civic Centre
Long Lane Carlton-in-Lindrick S81 9AP
Online Event

Depictions of the Industrial Age and the Enlightenment by Joseph Wright

Britain in the 18th century saw an unprecedented growth in industry, technology and scientific discovery, building the foundation of its wealth and power. Industrialists and natural philosophers – the name at the time for physical and chemical scientists – became famous, and their world was painted by Joseph Wright of Derby. The son of a well-to-do professional family in the prosperous county town in the Midlands, Wright was well placed to observe the development of the burgeoning industries of the area and to befriend the self-made entrepreneurs creating them. Combining his depictions of industry and science with an original approach to light, these subject paintings became popular in Wright’s lifetime, and his superlative eye for character made him one of the most sought-after portraitists. Justin discusses the key events of the early industrial and scientific eras, and describes Wright’s artistically ground-breaking paintings.

THE ARTS SOCIETY ACCREDITED LECTURER

Mr Justin Reay

After officer service in the Royal Navy, Justin entered a long career in business, becoming CEO of a healthcare company, Director of European Cultural and Business Studies for a Japanese executive school at Oxford and Washington DC, and a consultant in management development. Retiring from business in 2001, he lectured and wrote on naval history and, as one of the historians working towards the bicentenary commemoration of the Battle of Trafalgar, Justin was given unprecedented access to the former Admiralty buildings in London. This encouraged him to study the History of Art and Architecture, for which he was awarded the University of Oxford’s Diploma with Distinction. He later completed a doctoral thesis on medieval naval weapons systems with the University of Exeter.

From 2002 he was senior lecturer in post-graduate marketing at Oxford FE College and is a qualified teacher. For six years from 2004 he also delivered courses in the Oxford / UCal Berkeley accredited residential schools. In 2011 he was appointed as tutor in the History of Art and Classical Civilization at leading tutorial colleges in Oxford, and also privately tutors undergraduate and post-graduate art history students.

Formerly a senior academic manager at the Bodleian Library, Justin is a published historian, and among his impending works are an edition of Samuel Pepys’s naval papers in the Bodleian’s collections, and a study of the Admiralty buildings in London. He is frequently engaged as an enrichment speaker on art history for a European cruise line. Justin is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Historical Society, a Governor of the RNLI, a Founder Member of the Grinling Gibbons Society, and a member of The Arts Society Cheltenham.