Thomas Wright was a member of a prominent Nottingham banking family. He lived first at Norwood Park, near Southwell, Nottinghamshire and then at Upton Hall, near Newark-on-Trent. He was an amateur painter (not to be confused with Wilson's first teacher in London), and exhibited landscapes at the Royal Academy (1801-37) and British Institution (1842). He owned a number of works by Wilson but did not personally know the artist. However in 1824 he published the earliest book devoted to him: Some Account of the Life of Richard Wilson Esq., R.A., ... collected and arranged by T. Wright, Esq. To which are added various Observations [Wright 1824 ]. He died in January 1845 and was buried with his wife in the family vault at Halam near Southwell.
Wright owned two major paintings from Wilson's Italian period:
P66 Landscape Capriccio on the Via Aemilia, with the Temple of the Sibyl at Tivoli and the Broken Bridge at Narni
P67 Landscape Capriccio with the Tomb of the Horatii and Curiatii and the Villa of Maecenas at Tivoli
Much of his collection of Old Masters and modern British paintings was sold at Christie's on 7 June 1845. See further, especially on Wright's patronage of J.M.W. Turner: C. Powell, 'A Neglected Turner Patron: Thomas Wright of Upton (1773-1845)', Turner Society News, No. 121, Spring 2014, pp. 21-24.
