Joseph Wright
Born in New Jersey, Joseph Wright traveled to England with his mother, an artist and Revolutionary spy. He studied under Benjamin West and John Hoppner, later traveling to Paris, where he painted society portraits under the patronage of Benjamin Franklin. Wright returned to America penniless after a shipwreck off the Spanish coast. He was a skilled clay and wax modeler, and George Washington named him the first draftsman of the US Mint; Wright designed many of the first American medals and coins.
What makes an artwork revolutionary?
John Coats Browne was the son of a Philadelphia ironmonger who betrayed his pacifist Quaker upbringing to bear arms in the American Revolution. In this portrait he is about 10 years old, standing nearly life-size, his soft, wistful gaze off-setting the confidence of his stance. His pose was based on Thomas Gainsborough’s 1779 portrait of Jonathan Buttall, better known as Blue Boy. By using Gainsborough’s model, Wright depicted Browne with the sophistication and grandeur of European portraiture.
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd
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