Joseph Wright (American painter)

Joseph Wright (July 16, 1756, Bordentown, New Jersey – September 13, 1793, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American portrait painter and sculptor. He painted life portraits of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, and was a designer of early U.S. coinage. Wright was President Washington's original choice for Chief Engraver of the U.S. Mint, but died at age 37, before being confirmed to that position.

For other people named Joseph Wright, see Joseph Wright.
Yankee-Doodle, or the American Satan (1780), engraved self-portrait

Wright is often confused with his contemporary, the British painter Joseph Wright of Derby (1734–1797).

Early years

Wright was born in Bordentown, New Jersey, the son of Philadelphia barrelmaker Joseph Wright and sculptor Patience Lovell Wright. His parents were Quakers, and he attended the Academy and College of Philadelphia.[1]

Wright's father died in 1769, and his mother turned her hobby of modeling wax portraits into a business. She opened a portrait studio/wax museum in New York City in 1770, leaving Wright in Philadelphia to finish his schooling.[1] Patience Wright moved the portrait studio/wax museum to London in 1772, where she was joined by her children. Joseph Wright entered the Royal Academy of Arts in 1775, where he studied for six years, and in December 1778 won a silver medal for "the best model of an Academy figure." Wright caused a controversy at the school in 1780, by exhibiting a portrait of his mother modeling a wax head of King Charles II, while busts of King George III and Queen Charlotte looked on. Perhaps responding to accusations that he was anti-British, Wright engraved and published a cartoon self-portrait titled "Yankee-Doodle, or the American Satan."[1] Wright was the first American-born student to matriculate from the Royal Academy of Arts.[2]

Portrait painter

Benjamin Franklin
Portrait of Benjamin Franklin (1782), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia

Paitence Wright was a supporter of the American Revolution, and wartime tensions in London led to her move her portrait studio/wax museum to Paris in 1780.[3] Her friend Benjamin Franklin came to Paris in 1782, as chief of the American delegation to negotiate a treaty to end the Revolutionary War. The chief of the British delegation, Richard Oswald, commissioned 26-year-old Joseph Wright to paint a portrait of Franklin.[4] Rather than posing for many tedious hours, Franklin urged Wright to base his portrait on a small 1778 pastel portrait by French artist Joseph-Siffred Duplessis owned by Franklin. The pose was the same, but Wright's portrait was life-size, and he changed the clothing and background. His correspondence confirms that Franklin indeed did sit for him.[5] Franklin was pleased with the portrait, and commissioned Wright to paint a copy as a gift for a friend.[6] Wright painted seven known versions of the portrait.[7] The life portrait is in the Yale University Art Gallery,[8] the "Franklin" copy is in the National Gallery of Art,[8] and other copies are in the Royal Society of London,[lower-alpha 1] the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,[lower-alpha 2] the Museum of Fine Arts Boston,[lower-alpha 3] and elsewhere.[lower-alpha 4]

Following seven years in Europe, Wright returned to America in 1782, with a letter of recommendation from Franklin to George Washington.

George Washington
Life Study of George Washington (October 1783), Philadelphia History Museum

The Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783, officially ending the war. In October, Wright was one of two or three artists invited to Rocky Hill, New Jersey, to paint General Washington at his headquarters.[lower-alpha 5] Wright was granted a single sitting, and painted a 1/2-length study—oil on mahogany panel, 14 1/8 x 12 in. -- now in the collection of the Philadelphia History Museum.[10] He based five known portraits on this life study, but there is no documentation that Washington granted additional sittings.[11]

Washington received a letter from a Saxon nobleman, the Count de Solms, requesting that the American general sit for a portrait to add to his gallery of military leaders.[12] The July 1783 letter took months to arrive, and was conveyed through the Saxon minister in London, who enclosed his own letter offering to pay for the portrait,[13] and through Robert Morris. Washington spent two weeks in Philadelphia as Morris's houseguest in December 1783, during which he may have selected Wright to paint the portrait.[lower-alpha 6] He replied to the Count de Solms in January 1784: "I have not delayed a moment therefore to comply with your wishes, but have employed a Gentleman to perform the work, who is thought on a former occasion to have taken a better likeness of me, than any other painter has done: His forté seems to be in giving the distinguishing characteristics with more boldness than delicacy."[14] Wright painted the 3/4-length portrait in Philadelphia, and completed it in early 1784.[15] Washington returned to Philadelphia on May 1, for the first meeting of the Society of the Cincinnati, which convened from May 4 to 18.[11] He may have seen the portrait for the first time on May 15, when he paid Wright $40 for it.[16] Morris paid for the portrait to be shipped to London, and the Saxon minister sent it on to the Count de Solms.[10]

Washington was pleased with the portrait, and commissioned Wright to paint a copy as a gift for Mrs. Samuel Powel.[17] The "Powel" version—3/4-length, oil on canvas, 48 x 40 in. -- is in the Philadelphia History Museum.[10] Thomas Jefferson saw the original portrait in Philadelphia, and also ordered a copy.[lower-alpha 7] He was soon to depart for Paris, to represent the United States in treaty negotiations between France and Great Britain. Wright was only able to finish the head and to sketch out the body before the portrait sailed with Jefferson. American painter John Trumbull was in Paris in 1786, and Jefferson hired him to complete the portrait.[19][lower-alpha 8] The Wright/Trumbull version later hung at Monticello, and is now at the Massachusetts Historical Society.[20] Another 3/4-length version by Wright is at the Connecticut State Library and Supreme Court Building, in Hartford.[21] A head-and-bust portrait, missing the background battlefield scene of the 3/4-length versions, is at Mount Vernon.[22] The Count de Solms acknowledged receipt of the original portrait in a 1785 letter,[23] but its current whereabouts are unknown.[15]

Busts

On August 7, 1783, Congress created a committee to commission a life-size bronze equestrian statue of George Washington to adorn the eventual U.S. national capital.[24] The committee's recommendation specified: "The general to be represented in a Roman dress, holding a truncheon in his right hand, and his head encircled with a laurel-wreath."[24] It directed that the statue be modeled and cast in Europe, but also commissioned Wright to create a life-size clay bust of Washington to be used as a 3-dimensional model by whatever European sculptor should be awarded the equestrian commission.[24] In furtherance of this effort, Washington invited Wright to Mount Venon, and allowed the artist to make a life mask of his face:

Wright came to Mount Vernon with the singular request that I should permit him to take a model of my face, in plaster of Paris, to which I consented, with some reluctance. He oiled my features over; and placing me flat upon my back, upon a cot, preceded to daub my face with the plaster. Whilst in this ludicrous attitude, Mrs. Washington entered the room; and seeing, my face thus overspread with the plaster, involuntarily exclaimed. Her cry excited me in a disposition to smile, which gave my mouth a slight twist, or compression of the lips that is now observable in the bust which Wright afterward made.[25]

Wright's clay bust may have been nearing completion in late 1783, when Patience Wright, now back in London, wrote to Washington in December: "My Friends Write to me from America that Joseph Wright (my Son) has painted a Likeness and also moddel'd (sic) a Clay Busto of General Washington which will be a very great honor to My Famaly (sic)."[26] In April 1784, the Congressional committee paid Wright $233.33 for the clay bust.[27] But it provided no funding for the bust to be transported to France for the U.S. Minister to the Court of Versailles, Benjamin Franklin, to select a sculptor.[27] Instead, the bust was delivered to Congress, then meeting at Trenton, New Jersey.[27] The idea of commissioning a bronze equestrian statue of Washington seems to have been abandoned during the French Revolution.[27] Wright's clay bust is presumed to have been destroyed by the British during the War of 1812, in the August 1814 burning of the U.S. Capitol.[24]

Congress also commissioned Wright to model a life-size plaster relief bust of Washington, that he completed in January 1785.[28] He created a half-size plaster version of this for Martha Washington, that remains at Mount Vernon.[29] He modeled at least two profile relief heads in wax, that are now at Mount Vernon and the Winterthur Museum in Delaware.[30] Wright painted a c.1790 profile bust of Washington in uniform,[31] which he engraved and published as a print. Thomas Jefferson judged Wright's engraving very highly: "I have no hesitation in pronouncing Wright's drawing to be a better likeness of the General than [Charles Willson] Peale's."[32]

  • "Powel" Portrait of George Washington (1784), Philadelphia History Museum
    "Powel" Portrait of George Washington (1784), Philadelphia History Museum
  • Wright-Trumbull Portrait of George Washington (1784 & 1786), Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston
    Wright-Trumbull Portrait of George Washington (1784 & 1786), Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston
  • Wax relief head of George Washington (c.1784), Winterthur Museum, Wilmington, DE
    Wax relief head of George Washington (c.1784), Winterthur Museum, Wilmington, DE
  • Engraved bust of G. Washington (1790), Metropolitan Museum of Art
    Engraved bust of G. Washington (1790), Metropolitan Museum of Art

Other portraits

Wright moved his portrait studio to New York City in 1786.[1] Two years later the city became the first national capital under the U.S. Constitution.

Wright's Portrait of Frederick Muhlenberg (1790), is the only known image of the first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.[33] It is also the only known image of the interior of Federal Hall, where both houses of Congress met, 1788-1790.[33] New York City served as the national capital for two years, and the portrait shows Muhlenberg seated at his desk on the dais of the House Chamber.[33] Wright later painted a pendant portrait of Muhlenberg's wife, and the two portraits hung in their family home in Trappe, Pennsylvania. That home is now a house museum, where Mrs. Muhlenberg's portrait hangs alongside a 19th-centrury copy after Wright's Speaker Muhlenberg portrait. The original portrait is now in the National Portrait Gallery,[34] and an 1881 copy by Samuel Bell Waugh is in the U.S. House of Representatives art collection.[35]

Wright painted pendant portraits of Charles Thomson, secretary of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, and his second wife, Hannah Harrison.

  • Portrait of John Coats Browne (c.1784), de Young Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA
    Portrait of John Coats Browne (c.1784), de Young Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA
  • Portrait of General James Giles (c.1785), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
    Portrait of General James Giles (c.1785), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
  • Portrait of Hannah Harrison Thompson (c.1785), Tudor Place, Washington, D.C.
    Portrait of Hannah Harrison Thompson (c.1785), Tudor Place, Washington, D.C.
  • Portrait of Charles Thomson (c.1785), Tudor Place, Washington, D.C.
    Portrait of Charles Thomson (c.1785), Tudor Place, Washington, D.C.
  • Portrait of Baron von Steuben (c.1786), National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.
    Portrait of Baron von Steuben (c.1786), National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.
  • Portrait of Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg (1790), National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.
    Portrait of Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg (1790), National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.
  • Portrait of Catharine Schaeffer Muhlenberg (c.1790), on loan to The Speaker's House, Trappe, PA
    Portrait of Catharine Schaeffer Muhlenberg (c.1790), on loan to The Speaker's House, Trappe, PA
  • Portrait of Elizabeth Willing Powel (c.1793), Mount Vernon, VA
    Portrait of Elizabeth Willing Powel (c.1793), Mount Vernon, VA

U.S. coinage
Liberty Cap Half Cent (1793)
Liberty Cap Large Cent (1793)

Early in his presidency, Washington and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson diligently sought expert European engravers to design the first United States coins. These attempts were unsuccessful, and Wright was working as the unofficial engraver at the U.S. Mint by late 1792. He was designated as the Mint's "First Draughtsman & Diesinker" in August 1793, but Wright died the following month.

Wright designed the Liberty Cap Half-Cent and the Liberty Cap Large Cent.[1] Both coins feature the Goddess of Liberty holding a pole over her shoulder with a liberty cap hanging off the end of it, but she faces left on the half-cent, and faces right on the large cent. The Liberty image first appeared as the obverse of the General Henry Lee Medal (1792), commissioned by Congress,[1] issued by the Mint, and signed "J. Wright."[36] There is debate about whether Wright or Henry Voigt engraved the dies for these coins, although most historians and numismatists today credit the 1793 dies to Wright. He also designed the 1792 Quarter dollar and engraved the dies for it, but that coin was never issued.[1]

Personal
The Wright Family (1793, unfinished), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia

Wright's sister Phoebe married his schoolmate from the Royal Academy of Arts, British portrait painter John Hoppner.

On December 5, 1789, Wright married Sarah Vandervoordt in Philadelphia. They had three children, Sarah, Joseph, and Harriet.

Wright moved his portrait studio back to Philadelphia in 1791. Congress had designated the city as the temporary national capital for a 10-year period, 1790-1800, while the permanent national capital was under construction. Wright took on the wood-carver William Rush as a student, teaching him to model in clay.[1]

In Summer 1793, Wright began a family portrait depicting himself, his wife and their three young children. Yellow fever was raging through Philadelphia by July, and they sent the children to live with relatives to protect them.[37] Wright caught yellow fever and died on September 13; his wife died days later.[38] Although orphaned, their children survived.

Notes
  1. One of three copies painted for Caleb Whitefoord.[6]
  2. Likely the "Patience Wright" copy.[8]
  3. Likely a copy for Richard Oswald's brother or nephew.[8]
  4. In 1785, Duplessis painted a life-size oil-on-canvas version of Franklin in the same pose as his 1778 pastel, although in gray clothing (rather than brown). This caused Wright's Franklin portraits to be misattributed to Duplessis or other artists, and their 1782 dates to be questioned.[6] The 1785 Duplessis portrait has been used on the United States one-hundred-dollar bill since 1914.[8]
  5. William Dunlap also painted a portrait of Washington at Rocky Hill, now in the U.S. Senate collection.[9]
  6. William Spohn Baker argued (in 1898) that Washington probably commissioned the "Count de Solms" portrait from Wright during this Philadelphia stay, and potentially could have posed again for the artist.[11]
  7. On May 28, 1784, Jefferson left $40 (£17-10) with his friend Francis Hopkinson in Philadelphia, to pay Wright for the portrait.[18]
  8. The Wright/Trumbull version shows Washington holding the scabbard of his sword in his left hand. Wright's other 3/4-length versions show Washington holding the scabbard in his right hand and his hat in his left.

References
  1. Jan Kelsey, "Joseph Wright," Encyclopedia of New Jersey, Maxine N. Lurie & Marc Mappen, eds., (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2004), pp. 889-890.
  2. Monroe H. Fabian, Joseph Wright, American Artist, 1756-1793 (Washington, D.C.: National Portrait Gallery, 1985).
  3. Women's Project of New Jersey, "Patience Wright," Past and Promise: Lives of New Jersey Women (New York: Syracuse University Press, 1997), p. 43.
  4. A Catalogue of the Collection of American Paintings in the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Volume 1 (Washington, D. C.: The Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1966), p. 31.
  5. Joseph Wright to William Temple Franklin, n.d. [Fall 1782], quoted in Sellers.
  6. Charles Henry Hart, "An Original Portrait of Doctor Franklin, by Joseph Wright," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 32, no. 3 (1908), pp. 320-334.
  7. Important American Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture of the 18th, 19th & 20th Centuries (New York: Christie's Auctions, 26 May 1992), Lot 16.
  8. Coleman C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1962), pp. 414-426.
  9. "U.S. Senate: George Washington". www.senate.gov. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
  10. Nicholas B. Wainwright, Paintings and Miniatures at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: The Winchell Company, 1974), p. 273.
  11. Baker, William Spohn (1898). Washington after the revolution, MDCCLXXXIV-MDCCXCIX. The Library of Congress. Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott Co.
  12. Friedrich-Christoph, Count de Solms to George Washington, 9 July 1783.
  13. Comte de Brühl to George Washington, 4 September 1783.
  14. Washington to the Comte de Solms, January 3, 1784. John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscripts, Volume 27 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, September 1938), pp. 290-291.
  15. "Founders Online: From George Washington to Joseph Wright, 10 January 1784". founders.archives.gov. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
  16. [May 15, 1784] "By Mr Wright to him for Drawing my Picture for Ct DeSolm 40 Drs.” Washington General Ledger B, p. 199.
  17. Robert J. Hare Powel, Notes on the 'Wright' Portrait of George Washington, Newport Historical Society.
  18. "Founders Online: Memorandum Books, 1784". founders.archives.gov. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
  19. William W. Betts Jr., The Nine Lives of George Washington (Bloomington, IN: iUniverse Books, 2013), p. 160.
  20. George Washington from Massachusetts Historical Society.
  21. "George Washington (1732-99), (painting)". siris-artinventories.si.edu. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
  22. "Life Portraits of George Washington". George Washington's Mount Vernon. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
  23. Friedrich-Christoph, Count de Solms to George Washington, 4 August 1785.
  24. Elizabeth Bryant Johnston, Original Portraits of Washington (Boston: R. Osgood and Company, 1882), pp. 147-149.
  25. Watson, Elkanah; Watson, Winslow C. (Winslow Cossoul) (1856). Men and times of the Revolution; or, Memoirs of Elkanah Watson, including journals of travels in Europe and America, from 1777 to 1842, with his correspondence with public men and reminiscences and incidents of the Revolution. University of California Libraries. New York, Dana and Co.
  26. Patience Wright to George Washington, December 8, 1783, Library of Congress.
  27. Varnum Lansing Collins, The Continental Congress at Princeton (Princeton University Library, 1908), p. 112.
  28. Joseph Wright to Charles Thomson (Secretary of Congress), 20 January 1785.
  29. George Washington relief bust from George Washington's Mount Vernon.
  30. "Portrait of George Washington, (sculpture)". siris-artinventories.si.edu. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
  31. "Collections Database". museums.fivecolleges.edu. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
  32. Thomas Jefferson to Jean Bapitste Henri Barré, 11 July 1785, Boyd, Jefferson Papers, vol. 8, pp. 281-282.
  33. Monroe H. Fabian, "Joseph Wright's Portrait of Frederick Muhlenberg," The Magazine Antiques, vol. 97, no. 2 (February 1970), pp. 256–57.
  34. "Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg". npg.si.edu. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
  35. "Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives". history.house.gov. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
  36. Loubat, J. F. (Joseph Florimond); Jacquemart, Jules-Ferdinand (1878). The medallic history of the United States of America, 1776-1876. Boston, University of Massachusetts. New York, The author.
  37. Hank Burcharh, "Painting Portraits the Wright Way," The Washington Post, February 15, 1985.
  38. Cotter, John; Roberts, Daniel; Parrington, Michael (1992). The Buried Past: An Archaeological History of Philadelphia. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 192. ISBN 0812231422.
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