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 popularity of wax portraits was in part driven by their links with other types of portrait manufacture such as ceramic medallions.
Catherine Andras was appointed Modeller in Wax to Queen Charlotte in 1802. This relief is one of a framed series which also includes images of Princess Charlotte, the Duke of Kent and George III and George IV as Prince of Wales.
