Wright, Patience Lovell (1725-1786), was one of the earliest sculptors in American art. Wright began sculpting as a hobby by molding faces out of putty and bread dough. After her husband’s death in 1769, she was forced to support herself and her children and turned to sculpture to earn money. Although she apparently had no formal training, Wright began creating small portrait busts in tinted wax . She eventually sculpted hands as well as the heads of her subjects.
Patience Lovell was born in Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York, and grew up in Bordentown, New Jersey. In 1748, she married Joseph Wright, a Quaker farmer. Wright moved to New York City in 1771, where her wax sculptures became popular.
Believing there was a better market for her work in England , Wright settled in London in 1772 and opened a waxworks. She became popular for her profile portraits of upper middle-class and aristocratic English subjects, including the king and queen of England. Most of these works were only a few inches long, mounted on oval panels. Perhaps her best-known work was a portrait bust of General George Washington . Wright’s lifesized figure of English statesman William Pitt still stands in Westminster Abbey in London.
Wright sympathized with the American colonies in their conflict with Great Britain and decided to leave England for France. She served as a spy against Great Britain, smuggling information about British war plans against the colonies in busts she shipped back to America. Wright died on March 23, 1786, in London after being badly injured in a fall while visiting the American ambassador John Adams .
