A lecturer demonstrates an orrery, a clockwork model of the solar system, to a small group gathered in the dark. A lamp standing in for the Sun lights their faces, from rapt children to a man taking notes. Joseph Wright of Derby gave a scientific demonstration the solemn, candlelit awe once reserved for religious painting.
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The lamp itself is hidden behind the silhouetted boy in the foreground. The man taking notes is thought to be Wright's friend, the mapmaker Peter Perez Burdett.
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