Art Historian Identifies John Michael Wright Painting

(MENAFN- USA Art News) A previously unknown mid- 17th-century portrait of a woman named Dorothy Hobart has been identified as a work by John Michael Wright. Art historian Bendor Grosvenor made the discovery while preparing teaching materials for a connoisseurship course at the Royal Academy (RA).

The painting, which had been in the same family since its creation and never publicly documented, was initially listed at a regional auction as“Circle of Peter Lely.” Grosvenor suspected it was by Wright, a London -born artist from 1617. He used the portrait as a test for his students at the RA, challenging them to identify the artist.

Neither Google Lens nor artificial intelligence tools like Claude were able to correctly identify Wright. Google Lens only reiterated the auction's attribution of“Circle of Lely.” Claude suggested a range of 17th-century English artists including Lely, Mary Beale, and Gerard Soest, and notably advised one student to“ask an expert, like Bendor Grosvenor,” which Grosvenor described as an example of AI hallucinating.

Students instead relied on human research, visiting the National Portrait Gallery to examine 17th-century portraiture and its Heinz Archive. A student ultimately found a Wright portrait with a similar pose and background, leading to the identification. The attribution was confirmed by Dutch art historian Carla van de Puttelaar, who is writing a monograph on Wright. Both Grosvenor and van de Puttelaar believe Wright, who last had an exhibition in 1982 at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, deserves another show.

Source: The Art Newspaper

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