News Reports

LAST HOURS
He retired to rest last about half-past 12 o'clock this morning, but was very uneasy and restless until about half-past 2 o'clock, when he fell asleep, and slept quietly until 8 o'clock this morning. He then rose and occupied about twenty minutes in devotions. After this the convict appeared tolerably contented and calm, he went so far as to indulge in a little vocalisation. Although the songs he sang were not sacred, they were of the better class of secular compositions, and contained nothing in themselves offensive.

At about half-past nine o'clock, the Very Rev Dean O'Hea of Coburg, who knew Kelly in his boyhood, and it is said even baptised him, and was therefore anxious to comfort him as far as possible in his last moments arrived and was at once conducted to the condemned cell where he remained with the culprit until the tap at the door announced the arrival of the Sheriff.

Preceded by the crucifix, which was held up before him by the officiating priests, Kelly was then led onto the platform. He had not been shaved or cropped, but was in prison clothes. He seemed calm and collected, but paler than usual, but this effect might have been produced by the white nightcap placed over his head, but not drawn down over his face. As he stepped on the drop, he remarked in a low tone, "Such is life".

The hangman then proceeded to adjust the rope, the Deans in the meantime reading the prayer proper to the Catholic Church on such occasions. The prisoner winced slightly at the first touch of the rope, but quickly recovered himself, and moved his head in order to facilitate the work of Upjohn in fixing the knot properly. No sooner was the rope fixed than without the prisoner being afforded a chance of saying anything more, the signal was given, and the hangman, pulling down the cap, stepped back and withdrawing the bolt, had done his work. At the same instant the mortal remains of Edward Kelly were swinging some eight feet below where he had been previously standing. At first it appeared as if death had been instantaneous, for there was for a second or two only the usual shudder that passes through the frame of hanged men, but then the legs were drawn up for some distance, and fell suddenly again. This movement was repeated several times, but finally all motion ceased…and Edward Kelly had gone to a higher tribunal to answer for his faults and crimes. The body was allowed to remain hanging the usual time, and the formal inquest was afterwards held, when the remains were buried within the precincts of the gaol. An application by the relatives for the body was refused. This is the last melancholy act in the history of the Kelly gang led by Edward Kelly, during the career of which many lives have been sacrificed.

From "The execution of Edward Kelly the notorious bushranger, for the police murders at the Wombat Ranges."

The Herald, evening edition, 11 November 1880

The Death Mask

"A plaster-cast is obviously true- the truest of all presentments - as far as the framework of the head and face is concerned and the shaping of the bony parts. The fidelity of the 'soft parts', where resides all the expression, turns entirely upon the skill of the moulder."
From George Leo Watson, The Story of Napoleon's Death Mask, Bodley Head, London: 1914.

Life and death masks provided the most accurate portrayal of an individual before the invention of photography in the 1840s. Painting and drawing could not attain the precise honesty that the death mask captured without apology.

From Sarah Hill's 'With death masks you don't get a smile', Unpublished article, in the reference collection of the National Portrait Gallery, and;
Phoebe Lemon's 'What function do death masks serve in contemporary collecting institutions?', Unpublished article, in the reference collection of the National Portrait Gallery.'

At 10am on the 11th of November 1880, thousands assembled outside the prison gates awaiting news of Kelly's last moments. Within 24 hours, Kreitmeyer had made a wax cast taken from the mould of Kelly's face and put it on public display in his Bourke St waxworks.

This is as close as one can get to objectively examining a face without dealing with inhibiting self-consciousness, of both subject and observer. The subject is utterly passive. Kelly was in no state to act out the persona of the fearless bushranger. Here we can see something of the man behind the legend, the face behind the mask.

The making of Kelly's death mask followed the procedure of any other prisoner hanged at Melbourne Gaol. Following execution, Kelly's body was required to hang for half an hour before being taken down from the gallows. The body was carried in a handcart to the hospital deadhouse. Mr Maximilian Kreitmayer of Kreitmayer's Waxworks is understood to have shaved Kelly's hair and beard and made a mould of his head for the production of death masks before the body underwent a rigorous autopsy and was decapitated.

Links
On death masks: www.adh.bton.ac.uk/schoolofdesign/MA.course/ldm.html

Royal London Wax Museum: www.waxworld.com

Phrenology

"the craving for likeness became one of the characteristics of modern man, with the growing interest in scientific truth and knowledge that started to change the image of the world during the Renaissance and the seventeenth century."
From Walter Sorell, The Other Face: The Mask in the Arts. Thames and Hudson, London: 1973

Death masks were produced primarily for the science of phrenology in the nineteenth century. In their early form, from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century in Europe, death masks were limited to royalty. In nineteenth century Europe, the practice of taking a death mask was far more accessible.

The central motivation for death masks to be taken in the nineteenth century was the pseudo-science of phrenology. Begun by the German physician Franz Joseph Gall at the beginning of the nineteenth century, phrenology was an attempt to marry physionomy with psychology and popular science. Gall believed that facial features and the contours of the skull could reflect the content of the brain. Travelling Europe, Gall attracted many followers to his beliefs. The 'science' of phrenology remained popular for almost a century after his death in 1828. Thousands of masks were produced in the nineteenth century throughout Europe, America and Australia in the name of Gall's science.

Masks of the most famous and celebrated personalities were taken with as much interest as those of the notorious, the criminal, and the insane. The features of their faces and skulls, set in plaster for eternity, were collected as an aid for scientists, criminologists and for the adoration or abhorrence of the general public.

From Phoebe Lemon, 'What function do death masks serve in contemporary collecting institutions?' Unpublished article, in the
reference collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

More on the Myth

The State Library of Victoria website is a treasure trove of Kelly facts and figures including a detailed examination of the Jerilderie letter of 1879 dictated by Ned Kelly to Joe Byrne.
www.slv.vic.gov.au/slv/exhibitions/treasures/
www.slv.vic.gov.au/slv/exhibitions/treasures/jerilderie/index.html

This site is a mine of information historical, cultural and contemporary. Must see: www.ironoutlaw.com/
especially the filmography at: www.ironoutlaw.com/html/movies_filmography.html
Nolan's Kelly series at: www.ironoutlaw.com/html/gallery.html

NED: THE EXHIBITION This exhibition, with the blessing of author/historian Ian Jones and the State Library of Victoria, is the biggest and best ever: www.nedtheexhibition.com/

This link takes you to the ScreenSound database where you can look up the vast collection of Kelly references: www.screensound.gov.au/collections/index.html

STRINGYBARK CREEK - CULTURAL DIMENSIONS
www.arts.monash.edu.au/ncas/resources/mediality/kelly/KELLFILM.HTM

Documents of the Kelly Outbreak at the Public Record Office Victoria.
nedonline.imagineering.net.au/main.htm

Poem

On seeing Ned Kelly's Death Mask at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
D. Swoope

A slight smile
resting on
sweet lips
in death
the plaster
belies
your hardships
and betrays
your youth
your face
in stillness
smooth

with only
a fine filigree
of laugh lines
forming
below your eyes
declaring
your legacy
of flash behaviour

published in The Canberra Times
4 August 2001