Henry Bright (painter)

Henry Bright (1810/14 – 21 September 1873), was an English landscape painter associated with the Norwich School.

Henry was born in Saxmundham, Suffolk, the third son of some nine children of Jerome Bright (1770–1846), a clockmaker, and Susannah Denny, of Alburgh in Norfolk (who were married on 28 June 1790). They were nonconformist and attended services in the Congregational Chapel at Rendham, a few miles from Saxmundham.

Henry was apprenticed by his family to a chemist in Woodbridge, but was then transferred to another chemist in Norwich, Paul Squires. Either during, or after, his time with Squires, Bright became a dispenser at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. During his first apprenticeship he is said to have spent all his free time sketching.

His obvious artistic talents were finally recognised and he became a pupil of Alfred Stannard (1806–1889), the younger brother of Joseph Stannard. He is also said to have been trained by John Berney Crome (1794–1842), who was John Crome's son, and John Sell Cotman (1782–1842), both members of the Norwich Society of Artists.

About 1833 Bright returned to Saxmundham to marry Eliza Brightley (d. 1848) who came from the same town. They went on to have 2 sons and 2 daughters, of whom only the daughters are known to have survived into adulthood. The couple moved to Paddington, London in 1836, then to Ealing in 1848 (the same year that Eliza died). By 1854, Bright was living in St John's Wood, but left London in 1858 for health reasons and settled with his daughters in his brother's house in Saxmundham.

Bright continued to visit London for business reasons and to view exhibitions, and, from 1860, lived at Redhill in Surrey for a few years. He also spent some time in Maidstone, Kent.

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