A German polychrome wax group from the series 'The Four Ages of Woman', attributed to Caspar Bernhard Hardy (1726-1819), Cologne, circa 1800

RELATED LITERATURE

A. González-Palacios, A Secrétair by Theodor Comer with Panels Containing Wax Figures by Caspar Bernhard Hardy, Kunstkammer Georg Laue, Munich, 2016

The present charming figures modelled in wax are illustrative of Caspar Bernhard's most typical and celebrated work. Hardy, who was vicar of the Cologne cathedral (Dom) around 1800, had specialized in the manufacturing of lifelike polychrome decorated wax reliefs neatly displayed in small glazed deep frames. As a man of the Enlightenment, Hardy showed a strong interest in people and human nature and therefore most of his oeuvres consist of genre and portrait illustrations. Hardy found the inspiration for his subjects especially in contemporary genre painting, figurative porcelain and prints.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who met Hardy in 1815, praised his work and acquired several of his figures. The present figures compare particularly well to those contained in a secrétaire, recently at TEFAF (Georg Laue, 2016, op. cit.) and to a couple of reliefs at the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. nos. A.1-1993 and A.2-1993).