Details

Name

John Michael Wright

Brief Biography

1617 - 1694, British / Scottish

Occupation

Artist

Description

Artist John Michael Wright (1617–1694) was born in London, the son of a tailor. From 1636 he was apprenticed for 5 years to the eminent Scottish portraitist George Jamesone (1589/90–1644) in Edinburgh. He may have chosen to train in Scotland, rather than London, because his parents were Scottish and had connections there, or because the plague was raging in London and the north was considered safer. Jamesone had a good reputation and contacts in London. While in Edinburgh Wright seems to have married into a prominent Scottish family. He certainly placed significance on his Scottishness, at the height of his career signing himself as both ‘Scotus’ and ‘Anglus’.

In the early 1640s, Wright travelled to Rome where he probably attended a drawing academy and learnt Italian. He also began collecting paintings, engravings, medals and gems. He established a reputation as an antiquarian and copyist, and as a dealer too. He moved in distinguished cosmopolitan circles among artists, patrons, dealers and connoisseurs. In 1648 he was elected to the Academy of St Luke in Rome alongside Poussin, Sandrart and Velázquez. In 1653/54 he was awarded a post with Archduke Leopold, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands.

Wright returned to London in 1656 where he received many royal and prestigious commissions under successive regimes, first Oliver Cromwell, then King Charles II and then King James VII of Scots and II of England. He described himself as ‘Pictor reginus’, or Painter to the King, although he was never officially given this title; Peter Lely was the official royal painter. At a time when many Catholics were persecuted, he managed to maintain relative political immunity as an artist. Important commissions included an assignment to paint the ceiling in Charles II’s bedchamber in Whitehall Palace and a prestigious commission from the Aldermen of the City of London in 1670 for 22 full-length and life-size portraits of judges who had presided over the Great Fire of London property disputes. However, around 1679 he was forced to flee to Ireland to escape anti-Catholicism legislation in London. He remained there until about 1683. In 1685, James succeeded to throne, and Wright was chosen as steward to an extravagant embassy to the Pope in Rome. He died in London in 1694 at the age of 77.

Wright’s friend Thomas Hearne described him as ‘of middle stature, free and open, and innocent merry in his conversation, (especially amongst his friends,) of great plainness and simplicity, and of a very easy temper.’ His paintings are known for their elegance, realism and elaborate decorated costume.