Mr. Thomas Wright

Date1737

Artist/Maker Thomas Frye (ca. 1710 - 1762)

MediumMezzotint engraving

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1975-7

DescriptionLower margin reads: "Tho:s Frye Pinx:t & Fecit/ M.r Thomas Wright/ April y.e 18:th 1737"
Label TextThomas Wright (1711-1786) of Durham, Englan was an astronomer, scientist, and author who wrote many almanacks, calculations of eclipses, and treatises on the use of globes.

Thomas Frye was one of the most significant artists working in mezzotint engraving in the eighteenth-century. He was born outside Dublin around 1710, and moved to England at age twenty to work as a painter and engraver. He gained notoriety as the manager at the Bow Porcelain Factory, where he helped develop a recipe for bone china. After resigning his position at Bow, he returned to the medium of mezzotint. Frye’s mastery of this this engraving process is displayed through his ability to achieve dramatic variation in tone, characterized by velvety depths and luminous highlights, that render his subjects both sensitive and shockingly life-like.