MONUMENT IN ST. ALKMUND’S CHURCH, DERBY.
On an old paper, on which was written the above couplet, there was also the following lines:—
His age & Death alone are here expressed,
All friends to Taste and Genius know the rest.
Mr. Jno. Leigh Philips, who wrote an account[48] of Wright shortly after his death, thus writes of him:—
“In his person he was rather above the middle size, and when young was esteemed a very handsome man; his company was then much courted on account of his pleasing vivacity and convivial habits; his eyes were prominent and very expressive; in his manners he was mild, unassuming, modest to an extreme, generous and full of sensibility, with the perfect carriage of a gentleman; honourable and punctual in all his transactions, he entertained the most utter contempt for everything like meanness or illiberality; and his good heart felt but too poignantly for the misconduct of others.
“I may truly observe of him that he stedfastly acted on the principle of always continuing to learn; from conversation, from examining pictures, and, above all, from the study of nature, he was constantly endeavouring to advance in the knowledge of his art; and to this habit, as wise as it was modest, of considering himself through life as a learner, no small share of his excellence may be ascribed. This disposition was naturally attended with a candid readiness to adopt, from the practice of other artists, new modes of proceeding, when they appeared to him rational, and to make trial in studies on a small scale of such as seemed in a tolerable degree promising.
“We shall conclude our account of Mr. Wright, in his private capacity as a man, with observing that he repeatedly evinced much liberality, by giving valuable pictures to individuals among his private friends, or to persons to whom he thought himself obliged. In various instances these gifts were manifestly disinterested; and they were always conferred in a very pleasing manner, which declined rather than sought the expression of gratitude.
“In addition to the character which he merits for the executive part of his art, it is pleasing to record, that in his works the attention is ever directed to the cause of virtue: that his early historical pictures consist of subjects either of rational or moral improvement, and he has succeeded admirably in arresting the gentler feelings of humanity, for what eye or heart ever remained unmoved at the sight of ‘Maria,’ Sterne’s ‘Captive,’ or the ‘Dead Soldier.’ In his works ‘not one immoral, one corrupted thought’ occurs to wound the eye of delicacy, or induce a wish that so exquisite a pencil had not found employment on more worthy subjects. His pictures may be considered as the reflexion of his own delicate mind, and will be ranked by posterity as treasures worthy the imitation of succeeding generations.”