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All auctions / Sculptures / Keats' Death Mask
KEATS, John (1795–1821) – Death mask. Painted plaster cast, inscribed “C. Smith / London No 231” at crown and “Keats” at throat, hanging hook at back. Approximately 275 x 160 x 150mm (few light surface marks, scratches on left temple, left upper lip and above left nostril). [London: Charles Smith, c.1898–1905]. A fine cast of John Keats, capturing a true likeness of the poet the day after his tragic early death at age 25 . John Keats died of tuberculosis in Rome the night of 23 February 1821, attended only by his friend the artist Joseph Severn. The death mask was taken the next day, when “a gentleman was sent to cast the face, hand and foot”. Severn used these casts for his posthumous full-length portrait of Keats (now in the National Portrait Gallery, London), which he undertook in an attempt to exorcize “the impression [of Keats's death which] was so painfull on my mind” and to memorialize his friend with “the most pleasant remembrance”. Severn had begun the portrait by 16 May 1821, when John Taylor, Keats's publisher, wrote to him requesting that he send Taylor the casts. Severn replied that “the casts I must send another time because I still require them to finish the picture from”. The portrait, finished around 1822, is thus in part a contemporary depiction of the death mask; it is among the most enduring images of Keats. A careful study of the death mask by Peter Malone has critically reassessed earlier accounts of its history. In sum, he has established that the identity of the castmaker is unknown and that the surviving casts come from two separate sources. The best were produced in London by Charles Smith sometime around 1898 and1905, which are inscribed with Smith’s name at the crown and his inventory number 231 and the poet’s name at the throat. In addition to the Smith casts, a cast by the Lorenzi castmakers at Paris is known in one example today; it is no. 921 in their catalogue, lacking the Keats’ name and misidentified as Baudelaire. Malone has found casts from this mould also misidentified as Napoleon I and the astronomer Le Verrier. The present example is one of eight known examples of the Smith death mask, unknown before its sale in 2018: 1) London, Metropolitan Archives, J.H. Preston copy. 2) London, Metropolitan Archives, a copy taken in the 1980s from a damaged mask found (and now lost) at the V. 3) Rome, Keats Shelley Museum, Rome, given by Dr. Bradley. 4) London, Hampstead, Keats House Museum, Hampstead, given by Molly Hardwick. 5) Eton, Meynell copy, bought at Sotheby’s, 1986. 6) USA, private collection, bought at Christie’s, 1996. 7) Private collection, a copy without ‘Keats’ inscribed, surfaced in the US in 2019. 8) Private collection, bought at Sotheby’s, 2018. The present lot. Cf. Peter Malone, “Keats’s ‘Posthumous Existence’ in Plaster”, Keats-Shelley Review , vol. 26 (2012), pp. 125–35.
Estimate:$10,000
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Estimate:
$10,000
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