Studio for Portrait Masks
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The Studio for Portrait Masks was an organization established in Paris, France at the end of World War I under the auspices of the American Red Cross to fashion galvanized-copper face masks for soldiers who had been facially disfigured during the war. It lasted from the beginning of 1918 to the beginning of 1920, in that period fitting masks for around 200 men.
An estimated 15,000 – 20,000 men suffered facial disfiguration during fighting in the First World War. Many became victims of social stigma, even within their own families. Avoiding rooms with mirrors, some lived as recluses, only going out at night. While efforts to support such men were few, the technology for facial surgery was gradual developing, such as through the work in France of Hippolyte Morestin in the field of oral and maxillofacial surgery or of the plastic surgeon, Harold Gillies, a New Zealander living in England. However, their work remained insufficient to allow soldiers to return to their social lives. The creation of prostheses, or artificial parts of a face, was therefore essential, and tentative efforts to do this were being made by dental technicians and, to a lesser extent, sculptors. A pioneer in this field was Francis Derwent Wood, a British artist who volunteered to work in hospitals in London during the war as a member of the Royal Army Medical Corps. In 1915, he founded the Masks for Facial Disfigurement Department at the Third London General Hospital in Wandsworth where, after taking casts of a wounded man's face, he made masks from thin sheets of galvanized copper, which facilitated painting after fitting.[1][2][3][4]
Establishment of the studio
After the American Red Cross (ARC) moved its headquarters to 4 rue de Chevreuse in Paris, it was necessary to rent neighbouring apartments to accommodate nurses and other staff. One of the apartments rented, at 70bis rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, was a studio belonging to the sculptor, Janet Scudder, a supporter of the ARC. This studio became the setting for the Studio for Portrait Masks, which was developed by the American sculptor Anna Coleman Ladd under the auspices of the "Bureau de Reconstruction et de Rééducation des Mutilés de Guerre" (Bureau for the reconstruction and re-education of war wounded) of the ARC. In January 1918, the studio began to treat French and American soldiers who had been disfigured in combat.[1][2][3][4]
Ladd had learned of Wood's practice through British art critic C. Lewis Hind, who gave her an article by Wood explaining his technique. She visited Wood's facilities in London, known familiarly as the "Tin Noses Shop”, in 1917, where he encouraged her to use her own artistic talents to fashion similar masks in Paris. Like many artists at that time, Ladd had become a Red Cross volunteer. She submitted a proposal to the US War Department to establish a prosthetics studio for disfigured French soldiers, which she would finance primarily with her own money. The War Department approved the proposal, but suggested that she include American soldiers among her patients.[3][5]
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