There are women who are unknown-familiar
In the late 19th century, the body of a young woman was found floating on the Seine. As tragic as this case was, it was not unusual in Paris at the time - many sought a way out of misery, illness or some personal accident by jumping off one of the bridges and this unfortunate woman would soon be forgotten forever ... ie that her face and today, a century later, thousands of people do not watch every day.
The story goes that a pathologist, when he saw the body of a woman drowned in the Seine somewhere in the 1880s, was so enchanted by her beauty that he ordered a death mask to be made.
And then it became one of the most popular works of art in the world!
Everyone wants an "unknown woman from the Seine"
A pathologist from the Paris morgue showed the first model of the unknown drowned woman's face to his friends. At the same time, the modeler who made the mask placed it in front of his workshop and, to everyone's surprise, Parisians soon started ordering replicas.
Several copies of the mask were made, and by 1900, reproductions of "Unknown Women from the Seine" had become a fashion detail in homes across Europe. Her face became an inspiration for artists, writers and poets like Nabokov, Rilke, Kamija and Anais Nin, and the ladies increasingly imitated her appearance and facial expression.
Yet, as popular as she was, the "unknown lady of the Seine" would probably have fallen into oblivion over time had it not been for another case that secured her place in history forever.
A certain puppeteer, Asmund Lerdal, saved his son's life in 1955 by inhaling air into his lungs after strangulation, pumping him "mouth to mouth". A few years later, the puppeteer received an order to make a device for practicing the technique of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, which was still in its infancy.
Lerdal made a doll and, wanting to look less scary, he concluded that it was best to have a female face. Then he remembered the mask from the wall in his parents' house. It was about an "unknown woman from the Seine."
It is this face that is still used today to model the "save Annie" face - a doll on which first aid is practiced all over the world! It is jokingly said that he is the "most beloved person" that has ever existed.
