The lucrative nature of the portraiture business in Georgian England ensured that it was a highly competitive area. Artists worked hard to win favour amongst the elite classes.
In 1775 Wright moved to the affluent city of Bath, hoping to establish himself there as the society portrait painter of choice. This position was previously held by Thomas Gainsborough before he moved to London to further his career.
Wright was struggling to establish himself in Bath when he speculatively painted this portrait in order to demonstrate his artistic prowess. Hung in the Reverend Thomas Wilson’s house, it would have been seen by the most fashionable, and wealthiest, members of Bath society who might then be inspired to commission the artist.
Wilson had settled in Bath after the death of his wife, becoming a well-known and respected member of the community. All this was to change however after he met Mrs Catherine Macaulay. Left widowed and penniless by the death of her husband and in charge of a young infant daughter, Catherine Sophia, she accepted Wilson’s invitation to share his elegant Bath town house, an arrangement considered scandalous. The exact nature of their relationship remained the subject of much speculation and gossip, but he thought enough of her to sign over his house and give her a large annuity.
The portrait shows Wilson along with Catherine Sophia around the time that he formally adopted her. He too had lost a parent at an early age and, until this point, had been childless. Wright captures a poignant moment in their lives. The old man had found a family for the first time, at what was then a very advanced age, and the young girl had become the pet of the kind gentleman who had given her and her mother a home. Catherine Sophia’s mother was the author of A History of England and it is a volume of this work which Wilson is shown reading.
This comfortable scene was not to last however. Just a few years later Wilson was heartbroken when he discovered, much to his surprise, that Catherine senior had married a young Scottish sailor, twenty six years her junior. There followed a very public battle for Wilson to regain the deeds of his house and to cancel the annuity, which he eventually managed to do.
This painting can be seen at Chawton House in Chawton, Alton, Hampshire GU34 1SJ. It is formerly the home of Jane Austen’s brother and is now a library and study centre devoted to early women’s writing.
Michael Escolme 