The Napoleon Death Mask

Hugo has been volunteering at North Lincolnshire Museum since April 2024 as he works towards the Duke of Edinburgh Award. Once a month, he supports the Museum's Archaeology and History Club. Hugo has done research, prepared resources and has been a great help in supporting the children that attend. Over the months, it has become clear that Hugo has a great passion for history, especially if it's linked to Napoleon Bonaparte. When Hugo was asked if there was anything from the Museum collection he would like to research, he was quick to mention Napoleon's death mask, on display in the Library at Normanby Hall. Hugo has written the article below after completing his own research and consulting with the Curatorial Team.

A Death Mask is a cast created using a person’s face after their death. They are typically made of plaster. They capture the facial features of the person to preserve what they look like in their final moments, being a much better way for historians to get an accurate picture of what someone looked like. One of the most famous examples of the practice of creating a death mask is the French emperor and Military Commander Napoleon Bonaparte.

Napoleon is considered one of the greatest military commanders of all time, if not the greatest. He was able to conquer all of Europe without any country being equal to France. His reign ended with his loss at Waterloo on 18 June 1815. His life ending on Saint Helena Island on the 5 May 1821. Dr Francis Burton, a British Military Commander assigned to the Army’s sixty-sixth regiment, was on the island of St Helena at the time of Napoleon’s death. He made the Death Mask of Napoleon. Many copies were made by both Dr Francis Burton himself and Francois Carlo Antommarchi who was Napoleon’s private physician, who also assisted in the creation of the original death mask.

Inside the Library of Normanby Hall by the fireplace hangs one of these copies, often overlooked by passers-by. But how did this get here? Well, when the Sheffield family moved out of Normanby Hall and into Sutton Park in 1964 they sold or took most of their furniture with them, leaving the Hall rather empty. Michael Kirby, the then curator, went to auction houses to purchase new items. At one of them he found a copy of Napoleon’s Death Mask which was on auction and promptly purchased it.

Copies of Death Masks were a prominent feature of Rich Victorian Households for many reasons. They could be a talking point for guests, or they could provide a sense of pride demonstrating that they were able to defeat this person, or to commemorate their memory. For someone of Napoleon’s prowess, who was known as the ‘Nightmare of Europe’, hanging his death mask in one’s homes would bring an incredible amount of pride.