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Just moved this from the Totally Devoted thread on AFB where it was pretty much being ignored. Article (in Polish) with the photo: Unknown photo of Chopin on deathbed found Photo only: Photo only My translation of fragments of the article: Unknown photo of Chopin on deathbed foundWładysław Żuchowski, a photographer, purchased from a private Scottish collector a dagerotype showing dying Fryderyk Chopin. Experts examine authenticity of the negative, but most of them already have doubts. [...] The author of the photo is Louis Auguste Bisson, a French photographer known from another, earlier picture of the pianist. The first name and surname of the famous Pole is written on an attached piece of paper. [...] According to Alicja Knast, curator of the Chopin Museum in Warsaw, there is no evidence that the dagerotype pictures Chopin and there is a whole market of similar false documents. Małgorzata Grabczewska, a photography expert, Polish Library in Paris, doubts the authenticity of the dagerotype. According to her, Bisson never dated his negatives or signed them with his name. “The dagerotype is beyond doubt from the 19th century, but is it actually the deathbed photographed by Bisson?†she asked rhetorically.
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![[Linked Image]](http://www.chopinforever.org/chopinpost.jpg) Here it is without all that pesky advertising. Thanks for posting this JAS. I'm surprized all the Chopinoholics haven't been all over it today. It looks quite a bit like him. I'm sure there's a reason for that. One way to fake it would be to coif a copy of the "peaceful" death mask with an appropriate wig and do some creative posing and lighting. If it's a fake it would have to have been done in a similar way as a daguerreotype has no negative to interfere with. But who knows? According to one source some photographers did show up and were shown the door by Adolph Gutmann when they started to move Chopin's body to get it into a better light.
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At very first glance, it doesn't look to me like the Chopin (we know) of late 1849, but a much younger Chopin. Something about the image doesn't convince me, but I can't put my finger on it just yet.
"And if we look at the works of J.S. Bach — a benevolent god to which all musicians should offer a prayer to defend themselves against mediocrity... -Debussy
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It looks a lot like some of the very idealized liknesses of him around. It might be a total fake (even a photograph of a drawn image like the Cottingley fairy photographs) or it might be an actual dead guy who happened to look a lot like him, but as Stores said, younger, opportunistically misidentifed.
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I would agree that it does not look like like the known photograph of Chopin, but that could be misleading. Postmortem appearance is often different. The face looks youngish, but could be 39, I imagine, though Chopin was an older looking 39.. Probably not real. Fascinating nonetheless..
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Chopin did look young for his age all his adult life. Even when he was very ill, in England before his last concert, someone described him as a "frail looking young man of thirty."
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I guess I am influenced by that famous photograph, where he also looks almost uncomfortable. Was it taken towards the end of his life? But obviously live accounts are more reliable.
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He looks 'healthy' here.
Dates? Well, if you were going to take a photo of a famous composer, you might date that one photograph if no others.
Oh, and we DO look different standing up from laying down. Try it sometime!
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Are there any photographs of Chopin from the side that are considered to be authentic? I don't ever recall seeing any. And if not, it seems quite a leap to say this looks like him. Even if we were viewing straight-on frontal views, the differences in lighting, contrast, and decay of very old images, makes a meaningful comparison a very dicey proposition.
Also, the aesthetic quality of the photograph fits a little too well into the mystique of Chopin and his music. As Frycek suggested above, it seems idealized--the side view, the very handsome nature of the side profile, the top lighting of the face, and the nicely done shadow molding along the cheek. It seems to me that a photographer would have had to have been given quite a bit of leeway to arrange such a shot.
All that's left to suggest that this may be Chopin is the photographer's signature and the ascribed identity of the corpse--assuming it is a corpse--a corpse that may possibly have gotten up and walked away.
Tomasino
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At very first glance, it doesn't look to me like the Chopin (we know) of late 1849, but a much younger Chopin.... yes It looks a lot like some of the very idealized liknesses of him around..... yes He looks 'healthy' here.... yes 
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This image is said to depict Frederic Chopin on his deathbed. I don't see any photographers there. Tomasino ![[Linked Image]](http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/425/fredericchopinpolishmus.jpg)
"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do so with all thy might." Ecclesiastes 9:10
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Slow down and do it right.
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This image is said to depict Frederic Chopin on his deathbed. I don't see any photographers there. Tomasino The photographer was obviously taking that picture!! Who is atthe piano?
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That's supposed to be Delphina Potocka, a Polish countess, an old friend, and very possibly an old flame, who actually did come to see him and sang for him at his request, though I doubt very seriously that she was wearing Grecian robes at the time. She had to stop midway as Chopin was too overcome with sadness for her to continue. That engraving dates from something like the 1880's. (And there definitely wasn't a nun.) These sketchs are the most authentic perimortem depictions of Chopin other than the death mask. It was drawn by Chopin's friend artist Teofil Kwiatkowski who was there and later painted several variations of the actual death bed for various friends of Chopin. ![[Linked Image]](http://www.chopinforever.org/chopindeath.jpg) ![[Linked Image]](http://www.chopinforever.org/chopindeath02.jpg)
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He would have apparently changed hair styles while in recline (flipped) ![[Linked Image]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v442/malilylady/ODD%20PICS/chopindeathflipped.jpg)
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One way to fake it would be to coif a copy of the "peaceful" death mask There's a death mask? ...we DO look different standing up from laying down.... GRAMMAR POLICE!!! LYING down.
There is no end of learning. -Robert Schumann Rules for Young Musicians
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Yes. There are two, in fact. One most people have seen and one most haven't. (I'd be willing to bet that Frycek has photos of them). It's truly an interesting daguerreotype, but I don't at all believe it's Chopin.
"And if we look at the works of J.S. Bach — a benevolent god to which all musicians should offer a prayer to defend themselves against mediocrity... -Debussy
"It's ok if you disagree with me. I can't force you to be right."
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I should have searched before asking: ![[Linked Image]](http://www.oocities.org/mazurka17/dethmask.jpg)
There is no end of learning. -Robert Schumann Rules for Young Musicians
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The nose looks straighter (maybe this is what some members mean with "idealized"), but as for his age, I think he could be 39... Unfortunately though, Chopin was very sick when he died and in reality he looked older...
I don't think it is him, but I cannot exclude it 100%.
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Yes. There are two, in fact. One most people have seen and one most haven't. (I'd be willing to bet that Frycek has photos of them). It's truly an interesting daguerreotype, but I don't at all believe it's Chopin. Actually, there were three death masks made but only the one depicted above is fit for family viewing. (He looks way too dead in the other two.) (Anyone interested, PM me if you like.
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![[Linked Image]](http://img219.imageshack.us/i/fredericchopinpolishmus.jpg/)
