Undying Faces ®

Wikipedia entry for Adolf Menzel

ADOLF MENZEL.–During his lifetime Menzel’s art was, perhaps, regarded as belonging too exclusively to Brandenburg and Prussia, and he was exalted to high honours for dynastic reasons; yet he is and remains one of the most conscientious of graphic artists and realists in the second half of the nineteenth century. His free and picturesque sketches in oils have maintained his reputation among a generation of impressionists, better than the finished historical paintings by which he won widespread fame.Menzel was born on December 8, 1815, at Breslau, and died in Berlin on February 9, 1905. His death mask was taken by the sculptor Reinhold Begas and is in the National Gallery in Berlin. Photograph by Treue, Berlin.Black & White Photos and quotations from: Benkard, Ernst, & Green, Margaret (1927). Undying Faces, A Collection of Death Masks. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

HUGO WOLF.–A name that inspires us with reverence, for the composer’s songs are amongst the most exquisite memorials of modern German music. During his lifetime Hugo Wolf failed to obtain recognition and was appreciated only by a small band of admirers; he did not live to see his work command the applause of the multitude. In 1897 paralysis attacked him and clouded his mind; he was released by death on February 22, 1903, at the age of forty-two (born March 13, 1860). The death mask was taken in the Vienna Public Asylum by the sculptor Seiffert, and passed to the Municipal Collections in the Vienna Town Hall.

Location:  Thielska Gallery in Stockholm, Sweden

Link: www.thielska-galleriet.se

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE.–The great philosopher and thinker fell a victim to insanity in 1889, and was released by death on August 25, 1900, at Weimar; he was fifty-six years of age.The original of the death mask is in the Nietzsche archives at Weimar in the possession of Mrs. Elizabeth Forster-Nietzsche. As the owner could not bring herself to permit the reproduction of the mask in this book, we were obliged to be content with the bronze cast in the Berlin National Gallery. Photograph by Treue, Berlin.

Black & White Photos and quotations from: Benkard, Ernst, & Green, Margaret (1927). Undying Faces, A Collection of Death Masks. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.