Patience Wright

Background

Patience Wright was born in 1725, in Bordentown, New Jersey, of Quaker parents named Lovell. From childhood she was apt in modeling from dough, putty, and wax.

Career

Little is known of her life from then until 1769, when she was left a widow with several children. About this time she began modeling in wax. Her recorded works consisted of detailed, life-sized heads and hands, which were then attached to clothed figures. Within a short time she created a traveling waxwork exhibit featuring remarkably skillful portraits of well-known public figures.

In February 1772 Wright sailed to England, where she created a popular exhibit of actors, politicians, nobles, and other prominent personages. The attraction of her work lay partly in its novelty (she preceded Madame Tussaud by 30 years), partly in her skill, and partly in her own blunt, eccentric personality: she was, for example, said to have addressed the king and queen as "George" and "Charlotte" when they posed for her. During the Revolutionary War Wright opened her London home to American prisoners of war and corresponded frequently with Benjamin Franklin in Paris. It has been reported that she passed on to Franklin military intelligence gleaned from her contacts in London society, but there is little evidence to support this. She also may have corresponded with members of the Continental Congress; according to one legend, she hid her letters in wax figures consigned to her sister in Philadelphia.

In 1780 Wright went to Paris to open a wax museum, but found little opportunity. Patience Wright died on March 23, 1786, in London.

Achievements

• Patience Wright was an outstanding sculptor of wax figures, who achieved fame in the American colonies and England.

Personality

Patience Wright was tall, vigorous, outspoken; her intelligence was keen, her talk entertaining.

Connections

On March 20, 1748, Patience Lovell married to a man much older than herself, Joseph Wright, Sr. of Bordentown, who died in 1769, leaving her with several children.

Father:

John Lovell

Mother:

Patience Lovell (Townsend)

Sister:

Rezine Harris (Lovell)

Sister:

Rachel Wells (Lovell)

Daughter:

Phoebe Hoppner (Wright)

Son:

Joseph Wright, Jr.

Joseph Wright, Jr. was an American portrait painter and die-sinker.

husband:

Joseph Wright, Sr.

References

• Patience Wright: American Sculptor and Revolutionary Spy
• Patience Wright: American Artist and Spy in George III’s London.
• Sculptural Pursuit (Vol. 1 No. 2)