Case 10 2013/14: Death Mask of Napoleon Bonaparte
Expert adviser’s statement
Reviewing Committee Secretary’s note: Please note that any illustrations
referred to have not been reproduced on the Arts Council
England Website
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. Brief Description of item
Death mask made of plaster taken from the face of Napoleon Bonaparte, who
died on St. Helena on 5 May 1821, on a wooden stand. A handwritten label on
the stand reads: ‘This Cast was taken from the Face of Napoleon Buonaparte
as he lay dead at Longwood St. Helena 7th May 1821 which I do hereby
certify/R. Boys M.A. Senr Chaplain/By Rubidge’. Another label, which is loose,
is similarly inscribed in the same hand. The cast is also inscribed inside in
pencil ‘Rev Mr Boys’.
The longer ink inscription on both paper labels is in the hand of R. Boys (who
also inscribed another bust he owned in 1862, known as the Sankey bust –
see below). The second (pencil) inscription is not thought to be in his hand.
31.7cm x 15.5cm.
The mask was made, or donated to its original owner, the Rev. Richard Boys,
Senior Chaplain on St. Helena, by William Joseph Rubidge (1802-1827) from
a mould taken either by Dr Francis Burton or by Francesco Antommarchi from
Napoleon’s corpse.
The condition is good.
2. Context
Provenance
The story of the genesis of the death mask of Napoleon is complicated, and
not entirely clear. It was almost certainly taken by Francis Burton, one of seven
British surgeons in attendance at the death of Napoleon, on 7 May. A negative
cast was made in either two or three pieces (face from eyebrows to chin, back
of the head, perhaps in two pieces). A letter written by Ensign Darroch of the
20th Foot who was on guard duty confirms that Burton took a cast, but was
unable to make more than one positive from the negative since the facial part
had to be destroyed for technical reasons. Francesco Antommarchi,
Napoleon’s physician and a fellow Corsican, who had been unable to take a
cast shortly after the Emperor’s demise as he had no plaster, is said to have
appropriated Burton’s positive mask of the face, which had been left to dry at
Longwood. He is said to have set about reconstituting the missing parts with
the help of the portrait painter Joseph William Rubidge, who had sketched
Napoleon on his death bed. Antommarchi left St Helena with a positive mask
on 27 May. Rubidge, having assisted in the making of the death mask, gave
two copies of it to the Reverend Richard Boys, Senior Chaplin of St. Helena.
Each of these bear a note of authentication in Boys’s hand.
The death mask has been in the possession of the descendants of the Rev.
Richard Boys (1785-1867) until its sale at Bonhams, 19 June 2013, lot 196,
together with another cast, known as the Sankey Cast, which was given to his
daughter Mrs Sankey. This is now on loan to the Maison Française d’ Oxford,
an institution run by the French state. The cast sold at Bonhams, now known
as the Boys Cast, went to the Rev. Boys’s son, Ven Archdeacon Markby Boys
and thence to the last owner. As it remained in private possession, it appears
to have been unknown to most authors who discussed Napoleon’s death
masks (see below).
Key literary and exhibition references
The Boys mask is unpublished and has not been exhibited. It has however
been referred to in Eugene de Veauce, L’Affaire du Masque de Napoléon,
Lyon, 1957, pp. 107; according to this writer, its existence was revealed in a
letter to ‘The Times’ published on 4 December 1929 from Dr Leonard Boys, its
owner in or around 1957.
3. Waverley criteria
The death mask is a portrait of one of the most controversial characters in
British history. Napoleon exerts a continuing fascination and the 200th
anniversary on 18 June 2015 of the Battle of Waterloo will be commemorated
with numerous events.
There are many death masks of Napoleon in existence, the majority of which
are undoubtedly casts rather than original copies dating from the time of the
Emperor’s death. An example in the British Museum, acquired at an unknown
date from an unknown source, is thought to be later cast (see images
attached), but the present mask is not considered to be a later cast. It is known
to have belonged to the chaplain on St Helena and to have descended through
the Boys family. No other provenanced death mask of Napoleon is in any
British public c collection.