• Title
  Death mask of Henry Lawson, ca. 1922
• Creator
  Nelson Illingworth, 1862-1926
• Call number
  R 774
  Status: On display. Objects Gallery. Case 1, Shelf 21
  
• Level of description
  fonds
• Date
  
  1922 (dated by year of Lawson's death)
• Type of material
  Objects
• Reference code
  69969
• Issue Copy
  Digitised
• Physical Description
  1 plaster cast - coated on face with gray paint - 26 x 18.5 x 16 cm.
  
• Access Conditions
  
  Access via appointment
• Copying Conditions
  Out of copyright: Artist died before 1955
  Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
• General note
  
  Manuscript material which accompanied the mask is filed at MLMSS.
  
  It is uncertain whether this is a death or life mask. Ian McLaren quotes a statement from Dorothy Ellesmere Paul which claims that Lawson's face was too contorted in death for a mask to be made (see notes compiled by I.F. McLaren in 1979, Locn. no. PXn 578 Mitchell Library). The Illingworth family tradition however, states that this is a death mask and contemporary newspaper accounts refer to a death mask being made (see newsclippings in: Sunday Guardian 16 August 1931 Locn no. QA 821/L425.1 vol. 31 Mitchell Library). Illingworth's obituaries also refer to a death mask (see unidentified newsclipping held with ML MSS Mitchell Library).
  
  It is possible this is a life mask made by Illingworth while modelling his plaster bust of Lawson ca.1918-20, now in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
  
  The mask was offered by the Illingworth family at Sotheby's Fine Australian Painting, 29 November 1993, lot 105 where it was purchased by the present vendor.
  
  This item has been digitised as part of the Nelson Meers Foundation Benefaction, 2002
  Digital order no:Album ID : 825717
• Subject
  Lawson, Henry, 1867-1922
  
• Topic
  death customs
  death masks
  faces (people)
  
• Exhibited in
  
  Nelson Meers Foundation Heritage Collection - State Library of New South Wales
  Presence and Absence: Portrait sculpture in Australia - National Portrait Gallery (Australia) (August, 2003 - November, 2003)
  National treasures from Australia's great libraries - Council of Australian State Libraries (December, 2005 - December, 2006)
  A living collection - State Library of New South Wales (March, 2010 - July, 2010)
  Learning Services Program display 2012-2013 - State Library of New South Wales (February, 2012 - August, 2013)

View Media Files

2.

3.

Show more