Learn: Wikipedia entry for Felix Mendelssohn
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FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY was born in Hamburg on February 3, 1809, and died on November 4, 1847, at Leipzig, the famous centre of his labours. The death mask was taken by his friends, the artists Hiibner and Bendemann. The specimen that we have reproduced is probably the first cast, for the dead man’s hairs are still adhering to the beard; it is in the possession of Dr. Eduard von Bendemann of Berlin-Friedenau, a grandson of the Diisseldorf painter Eduard von Bendemann, from whom the family inherited it. There is a second specimen in the hands of Mendelssohn’s granddaughter. Miss Marie Wach, in Leipzig, the daughter of Wach, the great professor of civil law who was Mendelssohn’s son-in-law.
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.