In Tate Britain
Prints and Drawings Room
View by appointment- Artist
- Thomas Woolner 1825–1892
- Medium
- Plaster
- Dimensions
- Unconfirmed: 254 × 178 × 206 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Transferred from the National Portrait Gallery, London 2015
- Reference
- T14100
Display caption
One way to honour greatness during the nineteenth century was to take a plaster cast of the face after death. Turner’s mask is attributed to the Pre-Raphaelite sculptor Thomas Woolner, a great admirer and collector of the older artist’s works. Woolner often used death masks as the basis for portrait busts of his subjects and he probably intended to create a posthumous tribute to Turner. He did the same for a number of other Victorian luminaries, including the writer, Charles Dickens.
Gallery label, February 2010
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