Women artists in all ages and countriesEllet, E. F. (Elizabeth Fries)
History
Women artists in all ages and countries
Ellet, E. F. (Elizabeth Fries)
Women artists
She was the daughter of a German artist in enameling, but was educated
in England. She was truly wonderful in flower-pieces. The tasteful
decorations of some new apartments in Windsor Palace were executed by
her hand.
While in London she wrote thus to her friend Mrs. Lloyd:
“Come to London and admire our plumes; we sweep the sky! A duchess
wears six feathers, a lady four, and every milkmaid one at each corner
of her cap! * * * Fashion is grown a monster; pray tell your operator
that your hair must measure just three quarters of a yard from the
extremity of one wing to the other.”
Queen Charlotte took particular notice of Miss Moser, and for a
considerable time employed her for the decoration of one chamber, which
her majesty commanded to be called Miss Moser’s room, and for which the
queen paid upward of nine hundred pounds.
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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