World War 1 brought the suffering and death of millions and, while countless soldiers suffered from many types of injures, the most disheartening were facial injuries.
Not only did the soldier have to deal with the physical loss, but also the constant psychological stress of wondering how people would react to their changed appearance.
Surgery and skin grafting was an option for some, but many sustained injuries that went beyond the ability of surgery to repair. These unfortunate soldiers turned to portrait masks.
Pioneered by English sculptor Captain Derwent Wood, and improved upon by American sculptor Anna Coleman Ladd, portrait masks were modeled from photographs taken before the injury and were painted in oils to resemble the former features of the patient.
The first step was to make a plaster cast of the damaged face. Then, using the information garnered from interviews and photographs, the sculptors built the missing or ruined features on the plaster cast until the soldier said, “C’est moi!” (It’s me!). Next a gutta percha (a type of latex) mask was made of the area that need to be restored and suspended in a copper bath for two days until a thin film of copper was deposited on it, resulting in a light weight copper mask that could be painted.
The mask was painted on the man’s face to better match his skin tones. If the disfigurement included the entire mouth, model lips with space were created to accommodate a cigarette holder.
For those who desired, a moustache could be added. Most masks were held in place with spectacles but, if a soldier didn’t want glasses, alternative methods, like thin wire or ribbon, helped secure the mask.
In about a year and a half, Ladd and her colleagues sculpted almost 100 masks, each one a labor-intensive feat.
In 1932, the French Government made Anna Ladd a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, in recognition of the work she’d done.” #stayzero #zerofoxtrot #nobitching #ww1 #niptuck1918