John Masey Wright OWS (1777–1866) was born in Pentonville, London where his father was an organ-builder. He had a remarkable ear for music and was initially apprenticed to the same business, but was dismissed for making sketches on the organ pipes. Turning then to art as a career, he spent time in the studio of Thomas Stothard, whose illustrations were to have a profound influence on Wright's style.
Wright's reputation rests upon his small, delicately rendered compositions illustrating Shakespeare and other poets. Wright married and moved to Lambeth in 1810, where he shared a house in Bishop's Walk, at that time the theatrical quarter, with the marine painter John 'Jock' Wilson. Wilson introduced Wright into the local circle of theatrical managers and designers, and Wright obtained work with Henry Aston Barker at the Stand Panorama and as a scene-painter at Covent Garden and at His Majesty's Theatre.
Wright was elected an associate of the Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1824, and became a full member in the following year. From that time he made a living as an exhibiting watercolourist and illustrator of literary subjects, producing illustrations for such annuals as Literary Souvenir and Amulet, and also for editions of Shakespeare, Scott, Burns and others. It is said that his love of literature was such that his son recalled how, during an illness, he broke out in his sleep reciting long passages from Shakespeare.
Wright unfortunately was too generous and liberal with his money, and he suffered considerable financial hardship into old age, obliging him to work until the end of his life. He was dependent upon charitable payments from the Old Watercolour Society and a small life annuity from the Royal Academy until his death in 1866.
Wright's work can be found in the collections of the British Museum, Royal Academy, V&A, and the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington.
