25 March 2021 – WHO WAS THIS UNKNOWN FRENCH WOMAN?
Click on the picture below to go to the original Clancy Tucker blog post:
WHO WAS THIS
Sometime in the late 19th century, the drowned body of a young woman was recovered from the Seine in Paris. As was customary in those days, the body was put on display at the Paris mortuary, in the hope that someone would recognize and identify her.
Although no one came forward, she did catch the eye of one pathologist, who became so entranced by the girl’s face and her mysterious half-smile that he asked a molder to take a plaster cast of her face. The mask, which some refer to as the ‘drowned Mona Lisa’ or ‘L’Inconnue’ became a cultural phenomenon, inspiring artists like Louis Aragon, Man Ray, and Vladimir Nabokov, to imagine stories around the mystery woman.
But what really immortalized the face of L’Inconnue, and where you probably recognize her form is this: a Norwegian toy manufacturer specializing in soft plastic created the first CPR mannequin — using the unknown woman’s face. He drew inspiration from a replica of the mask hanging in his parent’s home. His creation is now the standard CPR doll model, dubbed Rescue Annie.