Imagine that you are a portrait sculptor. Imagine that all of your training, among classical figures and the exciting experiments of the early 20th century, has prepared you to create profound and stirring likenesses of some of the most intriguing men and women of your time. Imagine that your reputation is intimately tied to the success of these figures.
Now imagine that you have immersed yourself in one of the most involving chapters of your career. It is exacting, and requires you to create the most demanding portraits you have ever done. Imagine that these portraits must include the spirit and the dreams and the exact physical attributes of living people who not only will appreciate them as works of art, but will need them to even survive. And finally, imagine that no one must EVER notice these works, or they will be failures.
This is the story of Anna Coleman Ladd. She was an American sculptor in the early part of the century who was friends with and had worked with such notables as Isabella Stewart Gardner and Eleanora Duse. During WWI, she wanted to contribute to the war effort, as a significant number of the women of her time did. She tried rolling bandages and driving ambulances. (To the end of her life, she was always a dangerous driver.) At last, she read about the work and English sculptor was doing in making masks for soliders who had been disfigured on the battlefield. Instantly, she recognized her calling. She developed her techniques with the Englishman and eventually established the Red Cross Studio in Paris to make masks for the facially disfigured. During her time there, she made over 90 masks of exquisitely thin copperplating that were so lifelike the wearers could resume their normal lives. One even wrote to her that because of the mask, he was able to get married to the woman he loved!
The masks are lost now, though I would love to hear from anyone who may know of anyone who had one. Were they buried with their owners? Were they kept by the family as keepsakes? All were made for French soldiers (she did not make any more after returnign to the US), excpet for two that were made for Arab soldiers fighting for France.
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