Doncaster Museum & Art Gallery is fortunate to have in its collection three beautiful oil paintings by one of the most famous English artists of the eighteenth century, Joseph Wright of Derby. They are portraits of William Brooke and Elizabeth and William Pigot. Elizabeth Pigot was William Brooke’s daughter. In 1758 she married William Pigot, and between then and her death eight years later she gave birth to six children. At the time of the painting Elizabeth would have been 34, and befitting her status as the wife of a wealthy dealer in fabric, she is presented in a fashionable dress of pale grey silk. Around her neck and looping underneath her arms is a long string of pearls, while her cuffs and collar are made of fine lace. In her right hand she holds a small posy of flowers, and on her lap lies a solitary petal, a visual reference to the passing of time as the flowers begin to die.