Roy Precious - Antiques & Fine Art has dated this piece to the 17th Century.
JOHN MICHAEL WRIGHT (May 1617 – July 1694) was a portrait painter in the Baroque style. He was the most sensitive (but not the most fashionable) portraitist of the Restoration Court.
Described variously as English and Scottish, Wright trained in Edinburgh under the Scots painter George Jamesone, and acquired a considerable reputation as an artist and scholar during a long sojourn in Rome. There he was admitted to the Accademia di San Luca, and was associated with some of the leading artists of his generation. He was engaged by Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, the governor of the Spanish Netherlands, to acquire artworks in Oliver Cromwell's England in 1655. He took up permanent residence in England from 1656, and served as Court Painter before and after the English Restoration. He was a favourite of the restored Stuart court, a client of both Charles II and James II, and was a witness to many of the political manoeuvres of the era.
Wright is currently rated as one of the leading indigenous British painters of his generation, largely for the distinctive realism in his portraiture. Perhaps due to the unusually cosmopolitan nature of his experience, he was favoured by patrons at the highest level of society in an age in which foreign artists were usually preferred. Wright's paintings of royalty, aristocracy and gentry are included amongst the collections of many leading galleries today.
SIZE: 33 x 27 inches framed.
PROVENANCE:
2003 with Roy Precious Fine Art, King William House, Settle, North Yorkshire
2003-2022 North Yorkshire Private Collection.
Roy Precious - Antiques & Fine Art has dated this piece to the 17th Century.
Roy and nadine precious: specialists in portraiture from the 16th to the 20th century. Established in 1972.
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Portrait of a Gentleman C.1665, Studio or Circle of John Michael Wright.
