David Garrick is shown in profile facing to the right, wearing an open shirt and an actor's jacket with ribbed sleeves. His loose wavy hair is tied with a ribbon at the base of the neck. Garrick was an influential English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer. He promoted realistic acting departing from the bombastic style which had been popular.

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.