Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wright, John William

916146Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 63 — Wright, John William1900Freeman Marius O'Donoghue

WRIGHT, JOHN WILLIAM (1802–1848), watercolour-painter, son of John Wright (d. 1820), a miniature-painter of repute, was born in London in 1802. He was articled to Thomas Phillips (1770–1845) [q. v.], and from 1825 was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy, chiefly of portraits. In 1831 he was elected an associate of the Watercolour Society, and in 1842 a full member; in 1844 he succeeded Robert Hills as secretary. Wright painted domestic and sentimental subjects in the pleasing but artificial style then popular, and his compositions were largely engraved in the ‘Keepsake,’ ‘Literary Souvenir,’ Heath's ‘Book of Beauty,’ ‘The Drawing-room Scrap Book,’ and ‘The Female Characters of Shakespeare.’ His portraits of Lord Tenterden, Bishop Gray, and Bishop Marsh were engraved for Fisher's ‘National Portrait Gallery.’ Wright died in London on 14 Jan. 1848 at his house in Great Marlborough Street, leaving a widow and two children.

[Gent. Mag. 1848, i. 554; Roget's Hist. of the ‘Old Watercolour’ Society; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers (Armstrong); Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1893.]

F. M. O'D.