L'inconnue de la Seine (English: The Unknown Woman of the Seine) was a teenage girl whose body was pulled from the Seine River in the late 1880s. She is additionally known as La Belle Italienne.
Case[]
The female's body was pulled from the Seine River at an unknown date in the 1880s. No signs of violence were observed and it is believed she drowned by suicide or accident. Some have remarked the facial expression was inconsistent with that of a drowning victim. A coroner reportedly found the decedent to be quite beautiful and was prompted to create a death mask.
Additional image
There are conflicting accounts surrounding a mask created around the same time that belonged to the decedent or another person.
In the following years, the image was used in artwork and as a model for CPR models worldwide.
Sources[]
- L'inconnue de la Seine on Wikipedia
- CNN