Joseph Wright (American 1756-1793) Portrait of a lady

Joseph Wright (American 1756-1793)

Portrait of a lady, head and shoulders wearing a white lace bonnet

Inscribed on an original label verso: Jo Wright Pinx. No 6 Titchfield Street, Oxford Market, London also dated 1780 on the stretcher

Oil on canvas, oval

33 x 25cm; 13 x 10in

Wright arrived in England in 1775, his mother, the pioneering American sculptress Patience Wright, having arrived in 1772. He studied at the Royal Academy for 6 years winning a silver medal in 1778. In 1781 Wright and his mother went to Paris where he painted Benjamin Franklin. In 1782 he returned to America where he became from 1793 the principal designer and draughtsman for American coinage.