Patience Wright

Patience Lovell Wright ( * 1725 in Bordentown, New Jersey, USA, † March 25, 1786 in London) was the first known American sculptor. Mainly, they formed wax figures.

Life

Patience Wright, born in Lovell, came from a wealthy Quaker family. The Lovells were farmers. Wright was the niece of the preacher John Wesley. 1748 she married Joseph Wright. For many years she modeled figures from putty, bread dough and wax just for the fun for themselves and their children. After her husband had died in 1769, she made her hobby into a career and modeled portraits in colored wax. With the financial help of a friend and her sister Rachel, she founded her own studio in Philadelphia.

1772 Wright traveled to England and opened her wax museum with success. It was called the Prometheus of wax figures, was nonetheless known for its egalitarian speeches as well as for their skill. In 1773 she received an invitation to Buckingham Palace. King George III. became their patrons, and so Wright portrayed him, his wife and other members of the royal family and the court. Finally, however, she fell, by their openly carried forward sympathy for the American independence movement, in disgrace. 1773 was also the year of the Boston Tea Party, and the American colonists revolted against England. Wright had sent secret messages with military information, hidden in wax figures, to America. You should have also helped American prisoners of war to escape.

Wright wrote next to the sculpture and poetry and was an excellent painter. Your sculpture of William Pitt can still be seen today in Westminster Abbey. Her daughter Phoebe married the well-known portrait painter John Hoppner. Her sister Rachel and her son Joseph were also wax sculptor. The house in New Jersey still stands.

Works

• William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, wax model, 1779, Westminster Abbey
• Benjamin Franklin, wax portrait