Patience Lovell Wright

Image from the Wikimedia Commons

Patience Lovell Wright (1725-1786) was born in Bordentown, into a well-to-do Quaker farming family.  As a child she showed great promise as an artist. However, it was not until she was left a widow with five children to support that she returned to making sculpture as a source of income. Initially, she practiced creating pieces using bread dough.  When she felt she was proficient enough, she moved to the medium for which she became famous, modeling in wax. She transformed waxworking into fine art with the help of her equally artistic sister Rachel Lovell Wells. Her reputation derived from her skillful portraits of public figures. Wright moved to England in 1772 and with introductions from Benjamin Franklin, she received commissions for portraits of well-known living people of her time, among them William Pitt. She made wax models of them and created the first traveling exhibition of waxworks.

Outgoing and voluble, Wright was embraced by British society and the king and queen, whom she addressed as “George” and “Charlotte.” With the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, Wright is believed to have sent secret messages to the Americans. According to one story, she supposedly concealed messages in the wax sculptures that she sent to her sister who was running a wax museum in Philadelphia.

A contemporary of Wright’s commented on the “vigor and originality of her conversation.”

The sisters formed a waxwork show which they took on tour. Wright specialized in realistic life-size wax sculptures of living subjects.

Wright also made history after she submitted the first of three unsuccessful petitions to the New Jersey Legislature requesting repayment of money she lent the government for its war efforts. It is unknown whether she was successful in this final endeavor.

Wax model portrait of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, by
Patience Lovell Wright
(1725-1786), 1779.

The Sign Reads:
Patience Lovell Wright
1725-1786
First American Modeler in Wax
And Female Spy
Mother of Joseph Wright
Designer of Original U.S. Coins

—

References:

Troop, Miriam. “TWO LADY ARTISTS LED THE WAY FOR SUCCESS AND FAME.” Smithsonian. 8, no. 11 (1978): 114–124.