Matthew Craske's fascinating biography of Joseph Wright looks afresh at the artist known as the 'painter of light' [and] provides an alternative reading of this 'self-professed melancholic', drawing on neglected sources to mine the motivations and forces behind the creation of Wright's oeuvre...Craske's ambitious and innovative book invites the reader to reconsider this melancholy mind, this painter of darkness. -Emily Knight, Apollo Magazine In this beautifully illustrated new book Matthew Craske overturns this view of the artist as a spokesman for scientific progress and reveals him to be someone very different. -ArtMag [Joseph Wright's] most famous works show experiments and create the sense of wonder that must have accompanied them. He was much more than that, though, and this magnificently thorough biography and analysis includes a wide range of other figurative and landscape works. -Henry Malt, Artbookreview.net