Learn: Wikipedia entry for Ann-Amalia Of Saxe-Weimar
Mask Location???: Goethe Museum Dusseldorf Germany
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ANNA AMALIA OF SAXE-WEIMAR - “was a niece of Frederick the Great and the daughter of Duke Karl of Brunswick-Wolfen-buttel, Lessing’s patron; she was born on October 24, 1739. At seventeen she became Duchess of Saxe-Weimar by her marriage with Konstantin, and at nineteen her husband’s death left her regent of the land; “herself still a minor, the guardian of minors”. she ruled the land with the vigour and wisdom of “a perfect princess”, until her eldest son, Karl August, came of age in 1775. It was on her initiative that Wieland, Herder, and Goethe were summoned to Weimar. “In the peaceful knowledge that she had done her duty and accomplished the task laid upon her, she retired into a quiet private life, chosen according to her own inclination, and lived happy in the society of artists and scholars, surrounded by the natural beauties of her country home.” A journey to Italy in 1788 alone interrupted her placid existence. She died on April 10, 1807, at Weimar. (Goethe: Nekrolog auf Anna Amalia and Gesprache mit Eckermann.) The only specimen of the death mask is in the Kippenberg Collection at Leipzig, No. 3935 in the catalogue of 1913; it formed part of the estate of Goethe’s secretary, Krauter. (According to information kindly communicated by Professor A. Kippenberg, to whom, likewise, we owe the photograph.)”
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