Thomas Wright, like Wilson, was a younger son of North Wales gentry: his father was Edward Wright of Stretton Hall, Tilston, Cheshire, the neighbouring county to Flintshire. Wright brought Wilson to London on 1 February 1729 and Wilson trained for six years in his studio. Wright was a portrait-painter of some standing, whose address was 'the corner of the Little Piazza in Great Russell Street, Covent Garden' and whose studio may have had links with that of the more famous Thomas Hudson. Wright also worked as a copyist for Sir William Heathcote between 1728 and 1737 and was an important figure in the London art trade, supplying for example almost £7,000 worth of Old-Master paintings to James Stanley, 10th Earl of Derby, during the 1720s.
