Patience Lovell Wright
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Object type: Painting
Date: c. 1782
Attribution: Robert Edge Pine, 1730 - 18 Nov 1788
Former attribution: John Hoppner, 1758 - 1810
Sitter: Patience Lovell Wright, 1725 - 23 Mar 1786
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Sight: 125.7 x 100.2cm (49 1/2 x 39 7/16")
Frame: 147 x 121 x 7.9cm (57 7/8 x 47 5/8 x 3 1/8")
Credit line: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Topics: Women
Art
Intelligence agent
Arts and Culture
Military and Intelligence
Portraits
Sculptors
Wax modeler
Artists
Spy
Exhibition Label: Born Oyster Bay, New York
One of the colonial period’s first professional sculptors, Patience Wright modeled portraits of famous people in tinted wax, exhibiting them with success in Philadelphia and New York City. Making sculptures began as a hobby, but following her husband’s death in 1769, Wright embarked on a professional career to support her five children. After a fire destroyed most of her work, she relocated to England in 1772. Well-connected members of society flocked to her studio, and her exhibitions attracted enthusiastic admirers, including King George III.
As tensions with the colonies intensified during the spring of 1775, Wright offered to send intelligence back home, observing, “Women are always useful in grand Events.” She fundraised for American prisoners of war and hosted pro-revolutionary meetings in her studio. Robert Edge Pine, an English artist sympathetic to the colonial cause, is believed to have painted this portrait shortly before immigrating to the United States.
Nacida en Oyster Bay, Nueva York
Una de las primeras escultoras profesionales de la época colonial, Patience Wright modeló retratos de personalidades en cera teñida y los expuso con éxito en Filadelfia y Nueva York. Se inició en la escultura como pasatiempo, pero al morir su esposo en 1769 emprendió una carrera profesional para mantener a sus cinco hijos. Tras un fuego que destruyó casi todas sus obras, se radicó en Inglaterra en 1772. Muchos miembros de la alta sociedad acudían a su estudio y sus exposiciones atraían admiradores entusiastas, incluido el rey Jorge III.
En la primavera de 1775, mientras escalaban las tensiones con las colonias, Wright se ofreció a enviar información secreta a América, observando que “las mujeres siempre son útiles en los grandes eventos”. Recaudó dinero para los prisioneros de guerra americanos y organizó reuniones en pro de la revolución en su taller. Se dice que Robert Edge Pine, artista inglés simpatizante de la causa de las colonias, pintó este retrato poco antes de inmigrar a Estados Unidos.
Provenance: Kelly, Donald, 1956: Kelly, of Boston, purchased portrait in an antique shop John Brown (1774-1832)* of Philadelphia, sold by Parke- Bernet, lot 194; Sold by Mrs. George Croft through C.P. Vosburgh to William Jacobs, (Jacobs owned painting in 1935 when Hoppner attribution was given it by C.C. Cunningham, Director, Boston Museum); Sold Parke-Bernet Jan 26, 1946** as from collection of John Brown; Supposedly owned by John Hoppner until 1810. *Probably John Coats Browne, Pres. Kensington Bank, Philadelphia. **Also listed as sold on Jan 16, 1945, (see manual file)
Purchase
On loan to NPG from private collection for exhibition "Return to Albion" prior to NPG ownership.
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