biography of George Frederick WRIGHT (1828-1881)

Birth place: Washington, CT

Death place: Hartford, CT

Addresses: Hartford

Profession: Portrait painter

Studied: NAD, c.1848; Baden, Germany and Rome, Italy, c.1857-59

Exhibited: NAD, 1851-59; Brooklyn AA, 1882

Comments: After taking up painting professionally, he settled in Wallingford (CT) and was custodian of the Wadsworth Athenaeum Gallery at Hartford for a short time. He studied at the NAD in NYC about 1847 but returned to Hartford one year later. About 1857 he went abroad for two years, studying in Baden and Rome. In September, 1860, after returning from a study trip to Europe, he went to Springfield (IL) to paint the portrait of the Republican nominee for the presidency, Abraham Lincoln. He painted a second portrait of Lincoln at Washington later that year. Wright also worked in the South, but most of his time was spent in Hartford.

Sources: G&W; French, Art and Artists in Connecticut, 137; Wilson, Lincoln in Portraiture; New England BD 1849; Hartford BD 1851, CD 1855; Cowdrey, NAD; Met. Mus., Life in America; Antiques (Feb. 1948), 93, repro.; Mag. of Art (Feb. 1948), 71, repro. More recently, see Gerdts, Art Across America, vol. 1: 105, 106, 107.