L'Inconnue de la Seine

L'Inconnue de la Seine (The Unidentified Women of the Seine) was an unknown drowning victims whose death mask was a common fixture in the homes of Parisian Bohemians during the early 20th century. In his 1910 novel  Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge, Rainer Maria Rilke makes reference to the mask:

"Der Mouleur, an dem ich jeden Tag vorüberkomme, hat zwei Masken neben seiner Tür ausgehängt. Das Gesicht der jungen Ertränkten, das man in der Morgue abnahm, weil es schön war, weil es lächelte, weil es so täuschend lächelte, als es wüßte."

"The caster I visit every day has two masks hanging next to his door. The face of the young one who drowned, which someone copied in the morgue because it was beautiful, because it was still smiling, because its smile was so deceptive – as though it knew."

And one of my favorite authors, Maurice Blanchot, who owned one of the reproduction, described her as 

"une adolescente aux yeux clos, mais vivante par un sourire si délié, si fortuné, [...] qu'on eût pu croire qu'elle s'était noyée dans un instant d'extrême bonheur"

"a young girl with closed eyes, enlivened by a smile so relaxed and at ease... that one could have believed that she drowned in an instant of extreme happiness"