Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D.Waters, Clara Erskine Clement
History
Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D.
Waters, Clara Erskine Clement
Women artists -- Biography
Very soon after Mrs. Wright reached London she was fully employed. She
worked in wax, and her full-length portrait of Lord Chatham was placed in
Westminster Abbey, protected by a glass case. This attracted much
attention, and the London journals praised the artist. She made portraits
of the King and Queen, who, attracted by her brilliant conversation,
admitted her to an intimacy at Buckingham House, which could not then
have been accorded to an untitled English woman.
[Illustration: From a Copley Print.
THE SONG OF AGES
ETHEL WRIGHT]
Mrs. Wright made many portraits of distinguished people; but few, if any,
of these can now be seen, although it is said that some of them have been
carefully preserved by the families who possess them.
To Americans Mrs. Wright is interesting by reason of her patriotism,
which amounted to a passion. She is credited with having been an
important source of information to the American leaders in the time of
the Revolution. In this she was frank and courageous, making no secret of
her views. She even ventured to reprove George III. for his attitude
toward the Colonists, and by this boldness lost the royal favor.
She corresponded with Franklin, in Paris, and new appointments, or other
important movements in the British army, were speedily known to him.
Washington, when he knew that Mrs. Wright wished to make a bust of him,
replied in most flattering terms that he should think himself happy to
have his portrait made by her. Mrs. Wright very much desired to make
likenesses of those who signed the Treaty of Peace, and of those who had
taken a prominent part in making it. She wrote: "To shame the English
king, I would go to any trouble and expense, and add my mite to the
honor due to Adams, Jefferson, and others."
Though so essentially American as a woman, the best of her professional
life was passed in England, where she was liberally patronized and fully
appreciated. Dunlap calls her an extraordinary woman, and several writers
have mentioned her power of judging the character of her visitors, in
which she rarely made a mistake, and chose her friends with unusual
intelligence.
Her eldest daughter married in America, and was well known as a modeller
in wax in New York. Her younger daughter married the artist Hoppner, a
rival in portraiture of Stuart and Lawrence, while her son Joseph was a
portrait painter. His likeness of Washington was much admired.
<b>WULFRAAT, MARGARETTA.</b> Born at Arnheim. 1678-1741. Was a pupil of
Caspar Netscher of Heidelberg, whose little pictures are of fabulous
value. Although he was so excellent a painter he was proud of Margaretta,
whose pictures were much admired in her day. Her "Musical Conversation"
is in the Museum of Schwerin. Her "Cleopatra" and "Semiramis" are in the
Gallery at Amsterdam.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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