Portrait of Thomas Wright of Wighton
by John Theodore Heins
(1697-1756)
Thomas Wright of Wighton, Norfolk.
1739 123.8cm x 99.7cm.
Sold by
Christies 22 June 1979, Lot
112.
Sold again by auction,
14 December 2011, Dreweatts, Newbury, Lot 69.
On the back is a note: 'Thomas Wright, Wighton, Norfolk. M. Anne dau. of Revd. Wm. Wilson, Rector of Stiffkey. Their daughter Anne married Capt. Thomas Lee Warner of Walsingham.'
In 1949 Christie's stated that the portrait was signed and dated 1739, lower left, and in the entries in the two reference books mentioned below the same statement is made, and again stated in an old handwritten label verso. However, now only some faint marks can be seen, perhaps as the result of an over zealous clean in that area in the 1950s.
A photograph of this portrait appears on page 167 of 'The Dictionary of British 18th Century Painters' by Ellis Waterhouse, and also on page 242 of 'The Dictionary of Portrait Painters in Britain up to 1920' by Brian Stewart and Mervyn Cutten.
