Patience Wright
Patience Lovell Wright (* 1725 in Bordentown , Province of New Jersey , † March 25, 1786 in London ) was the first known American sculptor. Mainly she made wax figures.
Life
Patience Wright, nee Lovell, came from a wealthy Quaker family . The Lovells were farmers. Wright was the niece of the preacher John Wesley . In 1748 she married Joseph Wright . For many years she modeled figures out of putty, bread dough and wax for the sheer pleasure of herself and her children. After her husband died in 1769, she turned her hobby into a profession and modeled portraits out of colored wax. With the financial help of a friend and her sister Rachel, she set up her own studio in Philadelphia.
In 1772 Wright traveled to England and successfully opened her wax museum. She was called the Prometheus of the wax figures , but was known for her equalizing speeches as well as for her artistry. In 1773 she received an invitation to Buckingham Palace . King George III became her patron, and so Wright portrayed him, his wife, and other members of the royal family and court. But in the end she fell out of favor because of her openly expressed sympathy for the American independence movement. 1773 was also the year of the Boston Tea Party and the American colonists revolted against England. Wright had secretly sent messages to America with military information hidden in wax figures. She is also said to have helped American prisoners of war to escape.
Wright wrote poetry in addition to sculpture and was an excellent painter. Her sculpture by William Pitt can still be seen in Westminster Abbey today. Her daughter Phoebe married the famous portrait painter John Hoppner . Her sister Rachel and son Joseph were also wax sculptors. The house in New Jersey is still standing.
Works
- William Pitt, Earl of Chatham , wax model, 1779, Westminster Abbey
- Benjamin Franklin , wax portrait
Individual evidence
- ^ Sparks, Jared: The works of Benjamin Franklin; containing several political and historical tracts not included in any former edition, and many letters, official and private, not hitherto published; with notes and a life of the author , 1840, p. 343
literature
- Pegi Dietz Shea, Bethanne Andersen: Patience Wright. America's First Sculptor and Revolutionary Spy . Henry Holt, New York NY 2007, ISBN 978-0-8050-6770-5 .
- Charles Coleman Sellers: Patience Wright. American Artist and Spy in George III's London. Wesleyan university press, Middletown CT 1976, ISBN 0-8195-5001-9 .
- Richard Dean: America's First Sculptor. Patience Wright Began Her Work With Dough and Putty . In: The Mentor magazine 1926
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wright, Patience |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Wright, Patience Lovell (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American sculptress |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1725 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bordentown , New Jersey, USA |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 25, 1786 |
| Place of death | London |