Wax Fruit Centerpiece
This sumptuous wax fruit centerpiece – a still-life painting in the round – epitomizes the mid-nineteenth century fondness for ornate naturalism and painstaking detail. This lady’s craft, which involved making plaster casts of real fruit and then using the molds to re-create the fruit in wax, was accomplished only with a great expenditure of time and effort. The unknown maker of this centerpiece has meticulously captured the transient beauty of the natural world.
Artwork Details
- Title: Wax Fruit Centerpiece
- Date: ca. 1855–75
- Geography: Made in United States
- Culture: American
- Medium: Wax, paint, walnut, glass
- Dimensions: 31 x 21 in. (78.7 x 53.3 cm)
- Credit Line: Purchase, Karen B. Cohen Foundation Inc. Gift, 2007
- Object Number: 2007.453a–ccc
- Curatorial Department: The American Wing
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