The Beautiful, Dead, and Unknown Girl: L’Inconnue de la Seine, c. 1880
A young girl is found dead in the River Seine. Almost 150 years later, her face is still being used for art and CPR dolls.
The Girl in the River
On a dark night in Paris, a young girl was pulled from the Seine River. Authorities couldn’t figure out who she was or how she had gotten into the river. Her body bore no evidence to suggest that she had been attacked, so it was believed that she went into the water voluntarily. Suicide was suspected, but it could never be determined. Even that theory was heavily disputed. Many who looked at her serene face couldn’t believe that someone could seem so peaceful after taking their own life. They couldn’t imagine that she had jumped into the cold water. She simply looked like she had fallen asleep, never to wake up. Whatever happened would never be known. She had died with all of her secrets.
In an effort to determine her identity, her body was publicly displayed alongside others in a Paris morgue. She attracted many onlookers, but nobody who knew who she was. To her audience, she was simply a beautiful stranger. Her name would never be discovered.
Before her burial, a mortuary worker was so taken by her beauty that he decided to capture it in a death mask. This death mask was repeated over and…
