Sumner, Bishop of Winchester
Relief
19th century (made)
19th century (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, low relief portraits in wax became popular in Britain and they were often exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Society of Artists and elsewhere. Waxes were used in a similar way to prints and medals, in order to disseminate the image of the sitter, or, like miniature paintings or silhouettes as portable mementoes. Wax was well suited to being cast and reproduced many times over from the same mould in order to propagate an image.
The process of making a portrait in wax would begin with a model in plasticine or soft wax which would be worked using ivory or wooden tools in much the same way as a model in clay. A plaster mould would then be made and molten wax poured into it. The relief would be hand-finished by the artist.
Charles Richard Sumner (1790-1874) was the Bishop of Winchester.
The process of making a portrait in wax would begin with a model in plasticine or soft wax which would be worked using ivory or wooden tools in much the same way as a model in clay. A plaster mould would then be made and molten wax poured into it. The relief would be hand-finished by the artist.
Charles Richard Sumner (1790-1874) was the Bishop of Winchester.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Sumner, Bishop of Winchester |
| Materials and techniques | Wax |
| Brief description | Wax, English, by Richard Cockle Lucas (1800-1883), 19th century |
| Physical description | Wax relief. |
| Credit line | Rupert Gunnis Bequest |
| Object history | Rupert Gunnis Bequest. |
| Subject depicted | |
| Summary | During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, low relief portraits in wax became popular in Britain and they were often exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Society of Artists and elsewhere. Waxes were used in a similar way to prints and medals, in order to disseminate the image of the sitter, or, like miniature paintings or silhouettes as portable mementoes. Wax was well suited to being cast and reproduced many times over from the same mould in order to propagate an image. The process of making a portrait in wax would begin with a model in plasticine or soft wax which would be worked using ivory or wooden tools in much the same way as a model in clay. A plaster mould would then be made and molten wax poured into it. The relief would be hand-finished by the artist. Charles Richard Sumner (1790-1874) was the Bishop of Winchester. |
| Bibliographic reference | Pyke, E. A Biographical Dictionary of Wax Modellers, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1973, p. 82-6. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | A.142-1965 |
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| Record created | March 17, 2004 |
| Record URL |
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