The death mask of A.S. Pushkin

The mask was made under the supervision of the sculptor S.I. Galberg . This is evidenced in a letter to P. A. Pletnev V. G. Teplyakov:

P. A. Pletnev :

Before that minute, when he needed to close his eyes forever, I ripened to him. There were Zhukovsky and Mikhail Vielgorsky , Dahl (doctor and writer), and I still do not remember who. I had never imagined such a peaceful death before. Immediately went to Halberg. A mask was removed from the deceased, according to which they now prepared a beautiful bust.

- cit. by the work of Fevchuk L. P. ^[1]

Maria Kamenskaya, daughter of Count F.P. Tolstoy , in the description of her meeting with Pletnev on the day of Pushkin's death, testifies that the moulder-foundryman Balin, who was invited by her father, was directly involved in removing the mask:

M.F. Kamenskaya :

Its end! Alexander Sergeevich ordered you to live a long time! He said [Pletnev], barely audible, wiping off a tear with his glove ... Please, Count, please send as soon as possible to remove the mask! Yes, come! - almost cried Pletnev and, turning the cab, rode off somewhere. And my father ran with me to the Neva home, immediately sent for the foundry man Balin, who lived against the Academy gates on the fourth line, and sent him to take off the mask from Pushkin. Balin removed it surprisingly well.

- cit. by M. A. Rybakov

Replicas of the mask made by Balin and Halberg are well known; they are stored in Pushkin's museums, local history museums, and libraries.

The most valuable are the masks of the first ebb, made directly from a facial print in a cast. From a letter from N.I. Lyubimov to M.P. Pogodin dated February 22, 1837, it is known that no more than 15 such copies were made, all of them were ordered by V. A. Zhukovsky and were soon distributed. ^[one]

Only four masks of the first low tide are reliably known: ^[1]

• A copy belonging to Countess E.F. Tizengauzen, daughter of E.M. Khitrovo and granddaughter of M.I. Kutuzov , is located in the museum of A.S. Pushkin in Moscow .
• In the same museum, another copy is stored, handed over in the 1920s from Paris by the collector A.F. Onegin, the founder of the world's first museum of Pushkin. Onegin received this mask from P.V. Zhukovsky , the son of the poet V.A. Zhukovsky.
• A copy in the library of the University of Tartu .
• The mask, which belonged to college assessor Ivan Artemievich Sokolov ^[2] , is in the Orenburg Regional Museum of Local Lore .

Other instances of the first low tide have been lost or their whereabouts are unknown. One of them belonged to N. N. Ge ; it was received by the artist from T. B. Semechkina , niece of K. K. Danzas ; one more was handed over to V.A. Zhukovsky of the Chisinau friend of Pushkin V.P. Gorchakov. About the mask that belonged to Gorchakov, the review of Professor D.N. Anuchin is known:

... the best [mask] that we had to see was exhibited at the Moscow anniversary exhibition [1899] by A. I. Svechin, a relative of V. P. Gorchakov [...] The facial features on this mask are clearly visible; death and illness have not yet left their depressing imprint on them.

- ^[3]

Other masks of the first low tide, as suggested by L.P. Fevchuk, belonged to S.L. Pushkin , P.V. Nashchokin , E.A. Baratynsky , Baron M.N. Serdobin , N.I. Lyubimov, M.P. Pogodin and S.P. Shevyrev .

In 1898, a professor at the Kiev Imperial University of St. Vladimir V.A. Udintsev met in Paris with collector A.F. Onegin . Onegin said that he has one of the posthumous masks of Pushkin, with which copies are reproduced. Udintsev, returning to Kiev, on August 21, 1898 wrote a statement ^[4] to the University Board with a proposal to appeal to the collector with a request to donate one mask of the poet to the University of St. Vladimir, and on September 3 a letter was sent to Paris ^[5] . The answer to the name of the rector F. Ya. Fortinsky came in April of the following year ^[6] :

A. F. Onegin :

Dear Fedor Yakovlevich
Today, on April 2 (14), I sent with great speed to your name - to the University - a large box [...] with 17 masks from the face of A. S. Pushkin. He sent it specifically to you, as the first of those who contacted me with a statement of desire to receive a Pushkin mask for the University entrusted to you [...]

- ^[7]

Then, in a letter, Onegin expressed a request to transfer mask instances to different places on the list:

• To the St. Petersburg University - a box with 5 masks, of which 4 should be transferred:
  • Alexander Lyceum ;
  • School of Law ;
  • Academy of Sciences ;
  • Public library ;
• To Moscow University - a box with 2 masks
  • one of them is to the Rumyantsev Museum ;
• Odessa University ;
• Kharkov University ;
• Kazan University
• Tomsk University ;
• Warsaw University
• Yuriev University ;
• University of Helsingo ;
• Nezhinsky Institute of Philology ;
• Yaroslavl (Demidov) legal lyceum .

Onegin's package was received, and Pushkin’s mask intended for Kiev University was exhibited at an exhibition dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Pushkin’s birth in Kiev. The rector of the university proposed in 1900 to send Onegin a copy of the collection “In memory of Pushkin” published by the University. The University Board also complied with the collector's request for sending masks to the addresses indicated by him, as evidenced by letters of thanks sent to the University.

• Rybakov M. A. Anniversary of Pushkin in Kiev // head of Paris - Kiev (following the traces of archival finds). - Kiev: "Cue", 1999. - S. 160-213. - ISBN 966-7161-23-4 .

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