Portrait of John Heath of Derby (d.1815), half-length, in a blue coat with a tricorn hat under his left arm

The sitter was the son of a tenant farmer in the village of Duffield, a few miles north of Derby. Both he and his younger brother Christopher Heath (c 1718-1815, also painted by Wright, private collection; Nicolson, op.cit., p. 203, no. 78), became important bankers in Derby and played prominent roles in civic life. John was Alderman (1762) then Mayor of Derby (1763-74) and 1772-73. He was also associated with the manufacture of ceramics in Derby, founding the Cockpit Hill pottery with William Butts, Thomas Rivett and Ralph Steane in 1751 and, in 1756, he became a partner with William Duesbury in the Derby Porcelain Factory, founded by modeller Andrew Planche circa 1748, which became one of the leading English porcelain factories by the end of the 18th century.

For unknown reasons the brothers went bankrupt in 1779, which locally caused a small furore, as Mary Ann Denby, somewhat hysterically, writes in a latter of March-April 1779, 'Our town is filled with moanings and complaints by the failure of Messrs. John and Christopher Heath, bankers, who have involved the whole town and county in ruin!'.

Nichoson dates this picture on stylistic grounds to 1760 when the sitter would have been about forty, although David Fraser, dates it to 1753-55, when Wright returned to Derby between his two periods of working in Thomas Hudson's studio in London, and painted himself, his parents and several prominent Derby figures. This portrait relates to an early portrait drawing of John Heath (Derby Museum and Art Gallery) which appears to be based on Hudson's portrait of Edward Fleming.