National Galleries of Scotland

John Michael Wright (English, 1617 - 1694)

The son of a London tailor, John Michael Wright took the unusual step of serving his apprenticeship, from 1636, with George Jamesone in Edinburgh. In the early 1640s Wright went to Rome, where he remained until 1656, becoming a member of the Academy of St Luke. On his return, he lived in London, but he travelled to Dublin in the late 1670s and to Rome in 1686. Wright is one of the most distinctive British-born painters of the seventeenth century, with a confident approach to his sitters and a subtle sense of colour.