Lady with a mirror
late 18th–early 19th century
Medium
Wax, colored
Dimensions
Framed: 10 3/4 × 9 3/8 in. (27.3 × 23.8 cm)
Classification
Sculpture-Miniature
Culture
German, Cologne
Department
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Captain and Mrs. William G. Fitch, in memory of their son, Clyde Fitch, 1910
Accession Number
10.116.2
Tags
About this artwork
This charming colored wax portrait relief by Bernhard Caspar Hardy depicts an elegantly dressed lady holding a mirror, exemplifying the sophisticated wax modeling that flourished in late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Germany. Hardy, active in Cologne, specialized in miniature wax portraits that combined sculptural dimensionality with painterly surface treatment, creating intimate objects prized for their lifelike qualities and portability. Wax modeling allowed subtle gradations of form...