Figure 6. Henry Bright, A Highland Cottage, watercolour, 14in. x 20½in. sold for £1,300 in 2008. (Keys Fine Art Auctioneers)

Popular in his day with a long list of aristocratic pupils, he is regarded now as a minor though interesting member of the Norwich School, of which the most notable members were John Sell Cotman and John Crome. Bright is worth looking at by the modern collector because he is probably the most affordable of the good members of the Norwich School. As you will see, much of his work is available for under £1,000, with the occasional, perhaps rather startling exceptions (figure 1). To judge by online auction records, Keys Fine Art Auctioneers of Aylsham, Norfolk seem consistently to have the highest number of his works offered for sale, and the London salerooms feature them far more rarely. However, this partly results from them falling below the ever-rising minimum value levels at which the London salerooms will accept lots for sale.
Henry Bright was born in Saxmundham, Suffolk, and he was the son of a clockmaker. The exact year of his birth is a matter of some dispute, either 1810 or 1814. It is 1810 if you follow the somewhat chaotic parish baptismal register and a note by a close friend of his, and 1814 if you accept the age of 59 on his death certificate of 1873 and his gravestone in Ipswich Cemetery. In due course Bright was apprenticed first to a chemist in Woodbridge and then to another one in Norwich, Paul Squires, who was also a collector of paintings by local artists such as Cotman. It is not entirely clear what Bright did next but family history suggests he worked as a dispenser either in the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital or the Norwich Dispensary. All this time he was sketching and drawing and eventually his parents agreed to let him study with Alfred Stannard (1806-89) who, with his elder brother and teacher Joseph Stannard (1797-1830), were both members of the Norwich School. The Norwich Stannards were not related to the large and prolific late 19th and 20th century Stannard family of painters, despite the latter's claims to the contrary.
Some twenty years later, when Bright was established as a popular painter and drawing master in London, he wrote a peevish letter to Alfred Stannard, accusing him of cutting him in the street, and pointing out rather arrogantly how successful he had become since leaving Norwich. He claims his irritation at Stannard's behaviour only lasted a moment and after passing on the news that he has 'as intimate friends many of the most wealthy collectors in England', he grandly offers to effect introductions to them to benefit his late tutor.