[2] Around this time he painted works such as "Laying the Corner-Stone of the Beacon Hill Reservoir, Nov. 22, 1847" ("containing portraits of the mayor, Josiah Quincy Jr.; ex-mayors Josiah Quincy, Sr., and Samuel T. Armstrong; Nathan Hale, Thomas B. Curtis and James F. Baldwin, water commissioners; city marshal Francis Tukey, and members of the city council and government.
Edward Everett, also in Berlin at the time, facilitated the coveted Humboldt commission for Wight: "I reflect with pleasure that it was in my power, through the medium of my much valued friend Mr. D.D.
Barnard, then our Minister at Berlin, to aid a meritorious young artist, Mr. M. Wight, in procuring an opportunity to paint the portrait of Baron Humboldt.
Mr. Wight, however, succeeded so well in a portrait of Mr. Barnard, who enjoyed the intimacy of Baron Humboldt, that, on seeing it, he consented to give our young countryman four long sittings.
"[10] Through his career, other portrait subjects included: Louis Agassiz, Samuel Appleton,[11] Daniel D. Barnard, Henry H. Childs,[12] Thomas Dowse,[13][14] Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edward Everett, Prof. Pierce, Josiah Quincy III,[11] James Savage,[11] Charles Sumner,[15][16] Alexander von Humboldt,[17] Emory Washburn, and Henry Wilson.
For instance, in 1879 "the life-size picture of 'Eve at the Fountain,' painted by Mr. Wight, now on exhibition at Childs & Co.'s gallery, is an attempt at a great work in art, but we can hardly regard it as a successful one.