Thomas Carlyle
Sir Alfred Gilbert RA (London 1854 – London 1934)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1881
Materials
Plaster
Measurements
330 x 160 x 220 mm
Place of origin
London
Collection
Carlyle's House, London
NT 263811
Summary
Death mask of Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) by Sir Alfred Gilbert (1854-1934), 1881. Full head death mask in white plaster, in presentation case with domed glass lid. Inscribed ‘Thomas Carlyle’ on reverse at the base of neck.
Full description
When the sculptor Joseph Edgar Boehm heard of the death of his friend Thomas Carlyle on 5th February 1881, he sought permission from Carlyle’s niece, Mary Carlyle, to take a death mask of Carlyle. Mary initially refused, claiming that Carlyle’s face was ‘so changed and so wasted by illness that it is not like his own.’(Mary Carlyle to Boehm 6th Feb 1881) Boehm visited her that day and persuaded her to give her permission, and the following day, 7th February, he asked Alfred Gilbert, previously his studio assistant, to take the cast. Gilbert had a great deal of trouble getting access to Carlyle’s body in order to take the cast. He was refused admission to the house by Carlyle’s housekeeper, who sent for the police when Gilbert entered the house despite her protestations, and proceeded to take the cast. Mary Carlyle later complained in a letter to Boehm that Gilbert had been given permission to take a cast of Carlyle’s face only, which, rather than taking the half an hour promised, instead he took a cast of the whole head, ‘stayed for two hours and a half – leaving everything so spotted with plaster and so disarranged’ that another visit from the undertaker had to be arranged.’ (Mary Carlyle to Boehm, 7th February 1881). The cast of Carlyle’s head is extremely rare as it was more customary practice to take a cast of the face only. There are two other versions of the death mask in public collections, the National Portrait Gallery (NPG 1361) and Chelsea Public Library, both of which are casts of the face only. At the time of writing her biography of Alfred Gilbert, Isabel McAllister noted that the mask of Carlyle ‘is now in the possession of the maker’ (p.36), suggesting that Gilbert kept a cast of the death mask himself. Anna Moore (November 2017)
Provenance
Part of the original loan collection for the 'Exhibition of Memorials' collected and exhibited by the Carlyle’s House Purchase Fund Committee at the opening of the house in 1895, lent by Rev. Gerald Blunt (1827-1902), Rector of Chelsea (1860-1902). Listed in the minutes of the Carlyle's House Memorial Trust Committee of Management meeting held on 4th December 1895: 'Cast of Thomas Carlyle’s Head, taken after death by Boehm, and Assistant; Lent by Rev. Gerald Blunt'. Given to the Carlyle's House Memorial Trust by Rev. Gerald Blunt in 1898. Listed in the minutes of the Carlyle's House Memorial Trust Committee of Management meeting held on 19th May 1898. Transferred to the National Trust in 1936.
Credit line
National Trust Collections (Carlyle's House)
Marks and inscriptions
Reverse, base of neck: Thomas Carlyle
Makers and roles
Sir Alfred Gilbert RA (London 1854 – London 1934), sculptor
References
McAllister, Isabel G. Alfred Gilbert / 1929, pp. 35-36 Stocker 1988: Mark Stocker, Royalist and Realist: The Life and Work of Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, Michigan 1988, p. 443: Appendix F Carlyle's Death Mask