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Death mask of Frederic Chopin
The Polish Museum in Rapperswil
Rapperswil, Switzerland
Frederic Chopin's death mask of cast and chiselled bronze. The mask was modelled on the original work by Jean Baptiste Clésinger.
Just after Chopin's death in 1984, Jean Baptiste Clésinger took two moulds from the composer’s face in order to make death masks. He used one of them to cast a mask that he kept for himself. The other mould was used for making a slightly retouched mask to idealize the face disfigured by death.
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Details
- Title: Death mask of Frederic Chopin
- Physical Dimensions: 31 x 19 x 13 cm
- Provenance: A gift of Dr Julian Godlewski in 1975
- Type: Sculpture
- Medium: Chiselled bronze, cast
- About the author: Jean-Baptiste Clésinger called Auguste (1814-1883), a French sculptor and painter. He specialized in sculpting busts in marble and plaster, and historical, allegorical and mythological statues. In 1846, he met Chopin, G. Sand, and his future wife, Solange, daughter of a writer. Between the composer’s death, and spring 1850, he created about 17 works devoted to Chopin, not counting later replicas. The works reveal a tendency towards idealisation and stylisation.
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