Thomas Wright (2 March 1792,

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

– 30 March 1849,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

) was an engraver and portrait-painter.

Biography

He served as an apprentice to Henry Meyer, and worked for four years as assistant to

William Thomas Fry William Thomas Fry (1789–1843) was a British engraver. He occasionally exhibited his engravings at the Suffolk Street exhibition. Works Fry worked chiefly in stipple. He engraved four portraits for Fisher, Son, & Co.'s ''National Portrait Gall ...

, for whom he engraved the popular plate of Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold in a box at Covent Garden Theatre. About 1817 he began to practise independently as a stipple-engraver, and also found employment in taking portraits in pencil and miniature. He became much associated with

George Dawe George Dawe (6 February 1781 – 15 October 1829) was an English portraitist who painted 329 portraits of Russian generals active during Napoleon's invasion of Russia for the Military Gallery of the Winter Palace. He relocated to Saint P ...

, whose sister he married, and in 1822 followed him to

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

to engrave his gallery of portraits of Russian generals; there he also executed a fine plate of the

Emperor Alexander Emperor Alexander may refer to: * Alexander the Great (326-323 BCE), a Macedonian king who conquered the known world * Alexander Severus (208–235), a Roman emperor (222-235) of the Severan dynasty * Domitius Alexander, Roman usurper who declared ...

, and another of the Empress Alexandra with her children, both after Dawe, on account of which he received diamond rings from members of the royal family and a gold medal from the king of Prussia. Wright returned to England in 1826, and during the next four years was employed upon the plates to Mrs. Jameson's ‘Beauties of the Court of Charles II,’ which constitute his best work; also upon some of the plates to the folio edition of

Edmund Lodge Edmund Lodge, Royal Guelphic Order, KH (1756–1839), herald, was a long-serving England, English Officer of Arms, officer of arms, a writer on heraldry, heraldic subjects, and a compiler of short biographies. Life and career Lodge was born in P ...

's ‘Portraits.’ In 1830 he again went to Russia, and remained for fifteen years, working under the patronage of the court. There he published a series of portraits entitled ‘Les Contemporains Russes,’ drawn and engraved by himself. On finally leaving St. Petersburg Wright presented a complete collection of impressions from his plates, numbering about 300, to the Hermitage Gallery. He was a member of the academies of

, Florence, and

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

Works

Wright contributed engravings to: *Mrs. Jameson (Anna),
The beauties of the court of Charles the Second: a series of portraits, illustrating the diaries of Pepys, Evelyn, Clarendon, and other contemporary writers
', Publisher H. Colburn by R. Bentley, 1833.

Sources

* *Michael Bryan, ''Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers. Volume 5. S-Z'', Publisher Elibron.com, , 9780543931573. Reproduction first published in 1921
page 398
* ''A Dictionary of Artists of the English School'', by

Samuel Redgrave Samuel Redgrave (3 October 1802, London - 20 March 1876 London) was an English civil servant and writer on art. Life He was the eldest son of William Redgrave, and brother of Richard Redgrave, and was born at 9 Upper Eaton Street, Pimlico, London. ...

, G. Bell & Sons, 1878 * Obituary in ''

The Gentleman's Magazine ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' was a monthly magazine founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1907, ceasing publication altogether in 1922. It was the first to use the term ''m ...

'', 1849, Vol.211 * Obituary in '' The Athenæum'', 1849

External links

Thomas Wright (1792-1849), Painter and engraver
at the National Portrait Gallery {{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Thomas 1792 births 1849 deaths Artists from Birmingham, West Midlands English engravers