Portrait of a Girl

This portrait is an example of an encaustic painting, the process of applying heated beeswax onto a heated canvas. This technique is ancient, and Faiss became the world wide master on the matter, holding two German patents. His modernized technique used electricty to heat the palette and the canvas. Though the encaustic method of painting was somewhat well-known in Germany and France in the mid-20th century, it was almost unheard of in the United States.