A temporary export ban has been set on a glowing masterpiece by Joseph Wright of Derby, which hit a record for the 18th-century artist when it sold for £6.3m at a Sotheby’s auction in December, almost twice the top estimate.
An Academy by Lamplight, which depicts a group of young art students gathered around a classical sculpture, was an instant hit with the public when Wright first exhibited it in 1769.
A slightly later version is in the Yale Center for British Art in the US, but this one had been in the same private family collection, at Somerleyton Hall in Suffolk, since the 19th century.
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Wright was nicknamed “the painter of light”, renowned for his theatrical effects of night scenes illuminated by candle or lamplight, so the painting is of the type most coveted by collectors.
The government has delayed allowing its export to allow a British gallery or museum the chance to acquire it, but raising the price would be a considerable challenge: including fees they would have to find just under £7.5m.
The export bar could be extended into next year if any institution had a serious chance of raising the money. The biggest public collection is in Derby, the city where Wright was born and spent most of his life, but as a local authority museum it has almost no acquisition funds.
The export bar is imposed by the government on the advice of an expert committee, administered by the Arts Council, which considers art works deemed to be of national importance.
The arts minister, Michael Ellis, called the painting extraordinary. “Wright is one of the most pre-eminent painters of the age of enlightenment. His works help us to better understand the mix of religion and science in this period of huge industrial development.”
