Wright, Patience, Mrs (McKechnie Section 1)
Recorded by Jackson (The History of Silhouettes). Though Mrs Wright is known to have cut silhouettes, I myself have seen no examples of her work. Coke seems to have known her work, since he mentions that a feature of her style was the inclusion of a table in group silhouettes (The Art of Silhouette). Mrs Van Leer Carrick refers to Mrs Wright in A History of American Silhouettes. She is also mentioned by H. P. K. Skipton in John Hoppner (London, 1905). Skipton makes it clear that Mrs Wright was a remarkable woman, whose house was the resort of the literary and artistic society of her day. As well as being a silhouette artist, Mrs Wright was a miniature painter and is recorded by Foskett. It was for her wax modelling, however, that she was best known.
Patience Wright was born Patience Lovell, in Bordentown, New Jersey, in 1725 of Quaker stock. Skipton mentions that she was a niece of John Wesley. She married the Quaker Joseph Wright (an artist; see under Samuel Brooks, Appendix 5) to whom she bore four children: Joseph (1756-93, modeller and painter), Elizabeth (also a modeller in wax), Phoebe (who married John Hoppner in 1782) and Sarah.
After her husband's death in 1769, Mrs Wright, together with her sister, Rachel Wells, opened a successful waxworks exhibition. In 1772 she came to London, where she opened another waxworks exhibition. This was also a great success and was much frequented by fashionable society, among whose members she was known as the 'Promethean Modeller'. Her wax statue of Lord Chatham was eventually placed in Westminster Abbey. Skipton notes that Mrs Wright used to continue her modelling even while conversing, her hands 'busy under her apron'. He also mentions that for a time she enjoyed Court favour, but lost it after rebuking the King, in very outspoken terms, for sanctioning the war against America in 1775.
Foskett records a miniature of General Abercrombie by Mrs Wright, which was exhibited at the National Museum, Washington, from December 1925 until January 1926.
An exhibition of Mrs Wright's work, said to have been held in London in 1778, may have included silhouettes cut by her. It is possible, however, that her children's work, and not hers, was shown. Skipton states that during the American War of Independence, Mrs Wright acted as a spy for the country of her birth, obtaining information from Benjamin West and other members of her circle and passing it on, via Paris, to Franklin. She died on 23 March 1786.
Since Mrs Wright's activities were so various, we cannot be certain that she was a professional silhouette artist, though Mrs van Leer Carrick's reference might suggest that she was. Coke seems to have been the only writer on silhouettes who was familiar with Mrs Wright's work. We do not know whether Mrs Wright cut any bust-length or full-length single figures. She probably did, and several writers mention that flowers and animals were among her subjects. It is possible that her work was like the illustrated examples by Mrs Brown, though her sitters would presumably have worn costume of the 1770s or early 1780s (in style, that is, earlier than that worn by Mrs Brown's sitters, but later than that worn by Mrs Wray's).
No trade labels are recorded. As Coke seems readily to have identified the artist's work, it may have been signed.