Editorial Huw Lewis-Jones Our story begins in Vienna. The year is 1800 and Admiral Nelson is sat in a chair with straws up his nose. Long before photography would revolutionise the way people saw themselves, one of the most fashionable methods of securing your likeness involved a bucket of wet plaster and a great deal of patience. Exhausted after more than two years of continuous service in the Mediterranean, Nelson finally struck his flag and was heading for home. He would return to England overland through Austrian territory, with his pregnant mistress and her husband in tow. Famous for his exploits at the Battle of the Nile, he was the lion of the day and Emma made sure that he made the most of his time in the spotlight. They stopped so many times en route that a journey they could have made in a few weeks, eventually took over three months. While most were satisfied with a glimpse of their hero passing in his carriage or dancing at a ball, some admirers suggested they would like his bust to decorate their parlours. Never one to step modestly from the public gaze, Nelson agreed and was ushered into the sculpture studio of Franz Thaller. During this unglamorous procedure, he was very likely strapped into a tilted chair and told to keep his eyes firmly closed. Straws were inserted into each of his nostrils, helping him to breathe while wet plaster was slopped, smothered, and then artfully moulded all over his face. He had to stay completely still until the plaster was set hard enough to remove in sections. This simple cast was the starting point for a relentless cycle of portraits celebrating the newest naval hero. Where once it had been the exploits of Sir Francis Drake, or Captain James Cook, that had captured the public imagination, making them the most famous men of their day, now it was Nelson who ruled the waves. The negative cast was cleaned and then filled with plaster to provide a positive, the mask we see here. Features were refined. Nelson’s mask was used as the modellofor a number of marble busts. Countless copies were made, legitimately and otherwise. These sculptures gave many artists an impression of the man they would, in turn, make the star of their grand oil canvases. Prints from these pictures were runaway successes and the cheap engravings that began to circulate as soon as he stepped ashore in England made Nelson ‘one of the most recognisable faces in Britain’. vi
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