Neoclassicism and Romanticism

 

(Neoclassicism, Romanticism and Art Styles in 19th century - Art Map)



 

Joseph Wright



 

Joseph Wright

(b Bordentown, NJ, 16 July 1756; d Philadelphia, PA, 13 Sept 1793).

 American painter, sculptor and engraver. He probably received his first art training from his mother, the modeller in wax Patience Lovell Wright (1725–86). After the death of his father in 1769, he was placed in the Academy in Philadelphia, while Patience opened a waxworks in New York. In 1772 she moved to London to open a studio and waxworks there; by the spring of 1775 Joseph joined her and was the first American-born student admitted to the Royal Academy Schools, where he won a silver medal for ‘the best model of an Academy figure’ in December 1778. In 1780 he exhibited publicly for the first time with Portrait of a Man in the annual exhibition of the Society of Artists of Great Britain. In that year he caused a scandal at the Royal Academy by exhibiting a portrait of his mother modelling a head of King Charles II, while busts of King George III and Queen Charlotte looked on. He went to Paris in December 1781 and, while there, painted several portraits of Benjamin Franklin (version, c. 1782; London, Royal Soc. A.) from observation and from the 1778 pastel by Joseph Siffred Duplessis (1725–1802).

 

Miravan Opening the Grave of his Forefathers
1772
Oil on canvas, 127 x 101,6 cm
Museum and Art Gallery, Derby