Mary Bold, Mrs Thomas III Hunt (1740 - 1824)

The portrait of Mary Bold, Mrs Thomas Hunt, painted in 1765 and now in the National Trust collection, depicts a Lancashire gentlewoman and demonstrates Wright's growing confidence as a portraitist in the mid-1760s. The portrait belongs to an important transitional period in Wright's career: by 1765 he had already exhibited his first candlelight subject at the Society of Artists, and the decade would see him develop the experimental approach that would bring him national attention. His portrait manner in the mid-1760s shows the transition from the relatively conventional style of his early work toward the warmer, more naturalistic approach of his maturity. Mary Bold's portrait was made the same year Wright first exhibited publicly in London, suggesting the coexistence of provincial portrait commissions and metropolitan ambition that characterized his career. The National Trust holding reflects the wide geographic reach of his portrait practice beyond his primary Derby base, extending to the gentry of Lancashire and Yorkshire who valued his combination of honest observation and technical accomplishment. The portrait shows Wright developing his ability to render female subjects with increasing subtlety, moving toward the warmth and psychological engagement that would characterize his finest mature portraits.

The portrait shows Wright's developing ability to render fabrics and flesh with increasing refinement, while maintaining the honest characterization that distinguished his work from more flattering London portraitists.