Joseph Wright Yankee-Doodle 1780 British Museum

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. 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 Bordentown is a city in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 3,924.Patience Lovell Wright. His parents were Quakers, and he attended the

Academy and College of Philadelphia The Academy and College of Philadelphia (1749-1791) was a boys' school and men's college in Philadelphia, Colony of Pennsylvania. Founded in 1749 by a group of local notables that included Benjamin Franklin, the Academy of Philadelphia began as a ...

. 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. 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 George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

and

Queen Charlotte Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Sophia Charlotte; 19 May 1744 – 17 November 1818) was Queen of Great Britain and of Ireland as the wife of King George III from their marriage on 8 September 1761 until the union of the two kingdoms ...

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."Jan Kelsey, "Joseph Wright," ''Encyclopedia of New Jersey'', Maxine N. Lurie & Marc Mappen, eds., (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2004), pp. 889-890. Wright was the first American-born student to matriculate from the Royal Academy of Arts.

Portrait painter

Benjamin Franklin

Franklin by Joseph Wright 1782 obj 612 702 lrg

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. 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. 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. Franklin was pleased with the portrait, and commissioned Wright to paint a copy as a gift for a friend.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. Wright painted seven known versions of the portrait. The life portrait is in the Yale University Art Gallery,Coleman C. Sellers, ''Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture'' (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1962), pp. 414-426. the "Franklin" copy is in the National Gallery of Art, and other copies are in the

Royal Society of London The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

, the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

, the

Museum of Fine Arts Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

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

George Washington

Wright life portrait of Washington 1783 HSP

The

Treaty of Paris Treaty of Paris may refer to one of many treaties signed in Paris, France: Treaties 1200s and 1300s * Treaty of Paris (1229), which ended the Albigensian Crusade * Treaty of Paris (1259), between Henry III of England and Louis IX of France * Trea ...

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 Rocky Hill is a borough in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States, named for the Rocky Hill Ridge. As of the 2010 United States Census, the rural borough's population was 682,headquarters. 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.Nicholas B. Wainwright, ''Paintings and Miniatures at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania'' (Philadelphia: The Winchell Company, 1974), p. 273. He based five known portraits on this life study, but there is no documentation that Washington granted additional sittings. 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. 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, 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. 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." Wright painted the 3/4-length portrait in Philadelphia, and completed it in early 1784. Washington returned to Philadelphia on May 1, for the first meeting of the Society of the Cincinnati, which convened from May 4 to 18. He may have seen the portrait for the first time on May 15, when he paid Wright $40 for it. Morris paid for the portrait to be shipped to London, and the Saxon minister sent it on to the Count de Solms. Washington was pleased with the portrait, and commissioned Wright to paint a copy as a gift for Mrs. Samuel Powel. The "Powel" version—3/4-length, oil on canvas, 48 x 40 in. -- is in the Philadelphia History Museum. Thomas Jefferson saw the original portrait in Philadelphia, and also ordered a copy. 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. The Wright/Trumbull version later hung at

Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary plantation of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, who began designing Monticello after inheriting land from his father at age 26. Located just outside Charlottesville, V ...

, and is now at the Massachusetts Historical Society. Another 3/4-length version by Wright is at the Connecticut State Library and Supreme Court Building, in Hartford. A head-and-bust portrait, missing the background battlefield scene of the 3/4-length versions, is at Mount Vernon. The Count de Solms acknowledged receipt of the original portrait in a 1785 letter, but its current whereabouts are unknown.

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. Elizabeth Bryant Johnston, ''Original Portraits of Washington'' (Boston: R. Osgood and Company, 1882), pp. 147-149. 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." 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. In furtherance of this effort, Washington invited Wright to Mount Venon, and allowed the artist to make a

life mask A death mask is a likeness (typically in wax or plaster cast) of a person's face after their death, usually made by taking a cast or impression from the corpse. Death masks may be mementos of the dead, or be used for creation of portraits. It ...

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.

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'')." In April 1784, the Congressional committee paid Wright $233.33 for the clay bust.Varnum Lansing Collins, ''The Continental Congress at Princeton'' (Princeton University Library, 1908), p. 112. 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. Instead, the bust was delivered to Congress, then meeting at

Trenton, New Jersey Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784. The idea of commissioning a bronze equestrian statue of Washington seems to have been abandoned during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

. Wright's clay bust is presumed to have been destroyed by the British during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

, in the August 1814 burning of the

U.S. Capitol The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, which is formally known as the United States Congress. It is located on Capitol Hill at ...

. Congress also commissioned Wright to model a life-size plaster relief bust of Washington, that he completed in January 1785. He created a half-size plaster version of this for Martha Washington, that remains at Mount Vernon. He modeled at least two profile relief heads in wax, that are now at Mount Vernon and the Winterthur Museum in Delaware. Wright painted a 1790 profile bust of Washington in uniform, which he engraved and published as a print.

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...

judged Wright's engraving very highly: "I have no hesitation in pronouncing Wright's drawing to be a better likeness of the General than harles Willson Peale's." File:The Powel Portrait of Washington by Joseph Wright.jpg, ''"Powel" Portrait of George Washington'' (1784), Philadelphia History Museum File:Wright-Trumbull portrait 1784, 1786 MHS.jpg, ''Wright-Trumbull Portrait of George Washington'' (1784 & 1786), Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston File:Joseph Wright wax relief Portrait of George Washington 1784.jpg, Wax relief head of George Washington (1784), Winterthur Museum, Wilmington, DE File:Wright Washington profile engraving MMA cropped.jpg, Engraved bust of G. Washington (1790), Metropolitan Museum of Art

Other portraits

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

Portrait of Frederick Muhlenberg ''Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg'' is a portrait of 1790 by Joseph Wright, now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. It depicts Muhlenberg in his position as the first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Sitter Fred ...

'' (1790), is the only known image of the first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.Monroe H. Fabian, "Joseph Wright's Portrait of Frederick Muhlenberg," ''The Magazine Antiques'', vol. 97, no. 2 (February 1970), pp. 256–57. It is also the only known image of the interior of

Federal Hall Federal Hall is a historic building at 26 Wall Street in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. The current Greek Revival–style building, completed in 1842 as the Custom House, is operated by the National Park Service as a nat ...

, where both houses of Congress met, 1788-1790. 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. Wright later painted a pendant portrait of Muhlenberg's wife, and the two portraits hung in their family home in

Trappe, Pennsylvania Trappe (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania German: ''Drapp'') is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 3,509 at the 2010 census. Augustus Lutheran Church, built in 1743, is ...

. That home is now a

house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a v ...

, 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, and an 1881 copy by Samuel Bell Waugh is in the U.S. House of Representatives art collection. Wright painted pendant portraits of

Charles Thomson Charles Thomson (November 29, 1729 – August 16, 1824) was an Irish-born Patriot leader in Philadelphia during the American Revolution and the secretary of the Continental Congress (1774–1789) throughout its existence. As secretary, Thomson ...

, secretary of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, and his second wife, Hannah Harrison. File:'John Coats Browne', painting by the Joseph Wright.JPG, ''Portrait of John Coats Browne'' (1784), de Young Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA File:Joseph Wright - Portrait of General Giles - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Portrait of General James Giles'' (1785), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. File:Hannah Harrison Thomson.jpg, ''Portrait of Hannah Harrison Thompson'' (1785), Tudor Place, Washington, D.C. File:Charles Thomson full portrait - Joseph Wright (frame cropped).jpg, ''Portrait of Charles Thomson'' (1785), Tudor Place, Washington, D.C. File:Wright Baron von Steuben c.1786.jpg, ''Portrait of Baron von Steuben'' (1786), National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. File:Frederick Muhlenberg.jpg, '' Portrait of Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg'' (1790), National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. File:Wright Catharine Muhlenberg c.1790.jpg, ''Portrait of Catharine Schaeffer Muhlenberg'' (c.1790), on loan to The Speaker's House, Trappe, PA File:Elizabeth Powel by Joseph Wright, c. 1793.jpg, ''Portrait of Elizabeth Willing Powel'' (1793), Mount Vernon, VA

U.S. coinage

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 The United States large cent was a coin with a face value of 1/100 of a United States dollar. Its nominal diameter was 1 inch (28.57 mm). The first official mintage of the large cent was in 1793, and its production continued until 1857, whe ...

. 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, issued by the Mint, and signed "J. Wright." 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.

Personal

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

John Hoppner John Hoppner (4 April 175823 January 1810) was an English portrait painter, much influenced by Reynolds, who achieved fame as a brilliant colourist. Early life Hoppner was born in Whitechapel, London, the son of German parents – his moth ...

. 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. In Summer 1793, Wright began a family portrait depicting himself, his wife and their three young children.

Yellow fever Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. ...

was raging through Philadelphia by July, and they sent the children to live with relatives to protect them. Wright caught yellow fever and died on September 13; his wife died days later. Although orphaned, their children survived.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Joseph 1756 births 1793 deaths 18th-century American painters 18th-century American male artists American male painters People from Bordentown, New Jersey Artists from Philadelphia Painters from Pennsylvania Deaths from yellow fever American portrait painters People of colonial Pennsylvania Coin designers American currency designers Alumni of the Royal Academy Schools