PATIENCE WRIGHT.
This extraordinary woman, as Dunlap rightly calls her, was born, like West, among a people who professed to eschew all that is imaginative or pictorial. Her parents, who were Quakers, lived at Bordentown, New Jersey, where Patience Lovell was born in 1725. Her uncommon talent for imitation was shown long before she had an opportunity of seeing any work of art. The dough meant for the oven, or the clay found near her dwelling, supplied her with materials out of which she moulded figures that bore a recognizable resemblance to human beings, and, ere long, to the persons with whom she was most familiar.
She married Joseph Wright of Bordentown in 1748. He lived only nineteen years. Before 1772 the lady had gained not a little celebrity in some of the cities of the United States for her astonishing likenesses in wax. A widow, with three children dependent on her for support, she was obliged to seek a larger field for her efforts. The prospect of success in London was good, and to London she went.
There is testimony in English journals of the day that her works were thought extraordinary of their kind. She bade fair to rival the famous Madame Tussaud. Her conversational powers and general intelligence gained her the attention and friendship of several among the distinguished men of the day. Though a resident of England, her sympathies were engaged in behalf of her countrymen during the struggle of the American Revolution. It is said she even rendered important aid to the cause by sending to American officers intelligence of the designs of the British government. She corresponded with Franklin while he was in Paris; and as soon as a new general was appointed, or a squadron began to be fitted out, he was sure to know it. She was often able to gain information in families where she visited, and to transmit to her American friends accounts of the number of British troops and the places of their destination.
At one time she had frequent access to Buckingham House, and was accustomed to express her sentiments freely to their majesties, who were amused with her originality. The great Chatham honored her with his visits, and she took the full-length likeness of him, which appears in a glass case in Westminster Abbey.
The following is the postscript to one of Franklin’s letters, offering service should she return to America through France:
“My grandson, whom you may remember when a little saucy boy at school, being my amanuensis in writing the within letter, has been diverting me with his remarks. He conceives that your figures can not be packed up without damage from any thing you could fill the boxes with to keep them steady. He supposes, therefore, that you must put them into post-chaises, two and two, which will make a long train upon the road, and be a very expensive conveyance; but, as they will eat nothing at the inns, you may the better afford it. When they come to Dover, he is sure, they are so like life and nature, that the master of the packet will not receive them on board without passports. It will require, he says, five or six of the long French stage-coaches to convey them as passengers from Calais to Paris; and a ship with good accommodations to convey them to America, where all the world will wonder at your clemency to Lord N——, that, having it in your power to hang or send him to the lighters, you had generously reprieved him for transportation.”
Mrs. Wright was sometimes called “Sibylla,” as she professed to foretell political events. In a London magazine of 1775 she is called “the Promethean modeler,” with the remark: “In her very infancy she discovered such a striking genius, and began making faces with new bread and putty to such an extent that she was advised to try her skill in wax.”
Her likenesses of the king, queen, Lord Temple, Lord Chatham, Barry, Wilkes, and others, attracted universal attention. Critics gave her credit for wonderful natural abilities, and said she would have been a miracle if the advantages of a liberal education had fallen to her lot. Noticing her quick and brilliant eyes, their glance was said to “penetrate and dart through the person looked on.” She had a faculty of distinguishing the characters and dispositions of her visitors, and was rarely mistaken in her judgment of them.
Dunlap farther speaks of “an energetic wildness in her manner. While conversing she was busy modeling, both hands being under her apron.”
Her eldest daughter married Mr. Platt, an American; she inherited some of her mother’s talents. She became well known in New York about 1787 by her modeling in wax. The younger was the wife of Hoppner, the rival of Stuart and Lawrence in portrait-painting. The young lady’s sweet face may be recognized in some historical compositions. The British Consul at Venice, mentioned by Moore in his Life of Byron, was the grandson of Mrs. Wright.
Mrs. Wright lost favor with George III. by her earnest reproofs for his sanction of the war with America. She went to Paris in 1781, but was in London in 1785, when she wrote to Jefferson that she was delighted that her son Joseph had painted the best likeness of Washington of any painter in America. Washington himself said he “should think himself happy to have his bust done by Mrs. Wright, whose uncommon talents,” etc.
She wished not only to make a likeness of the hero, but of those gentlemen who had assisted at signing the treaty of peace. “To shame the English king,” she says, “I would go to any trouble and expense, to add my mite to the stock of honor due to Adams, Jefferson, and others, to send to America.” And she offered to go herself to Paris and mould the likeness of Jefferson. She wished to consult him how best to honor her country by holding up the likenesses of her eminent men, either in painting or wax-work; and hinted at the danger of sending Washington’s picture to London, from the enmity of the government and the espionage of the police; the latter, she observes, having “all the folly, without the ability, of the French.”
The exercise of artistic accomplishment was now so popular, that culture in painting, drawing, and etching became general in the education of young ladies. The fashion of patronizing the arts, too, was in vogue among women of the highest rank. Lady Dorothea Saville painted portraits and drew admirable sketches. Lady Louisa de Greville and her sister Augusta were ardent connoisseurs. The Countess Lavinia Spencer was celebrated for her skill in etching; and Lady Amherst, Lady Temple, and Lady Henry Fitzgerald, were noted artists.
Two princesses of the royal family took pleasure in painting. Princess Elizabeth drew with taste and skill. She engraved a “Birth of Love” after Tomkins, and produced several original specimens of great beauty. One of her fancy-pieces was “Cupid turned Volunteer,” which appeared, in 1804, in a series of prints engraved with poetical illustrations. The designs were beautiful. Three years later, a series of twenty-four etchings by her royal highness was published. They evinced spirit and taste, and a deep feeling for the beautiful.
Charlotte Matilda, afterward Queen of Wurtemberg, drew and painted landscapes after the manner of Waterloo.