Appearances Greeting a Point of View by JJ Marsh

Author:JJ Marsh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: short stories, flash fiction, florence, munich, geneva, toulouse, moulage
Publisher: JJ Marsh

An Interview with Elsbeth

(Non-fiction)

I drive up the mountain, all hairpin bends and sheer drops till I reach the peak. I take a left and drive until the road runs out. But I know I’m in the right place. A small patch of complicated colour on the side of a mountain – Elsbeth’s rose garden.

I’ve met this woman and her forthright opinions many times, but today I’ll get the whole story. How, as a young widow in the 1950s, she travelled around India, collecting examples of skin diseases for moulage (wax representations used to educate dermatologists). How she invented a technique for epithesis to replace missing facial features. How she made Jung’s death mask.

Worn steps lead to the front door of her wooden house, scythes are propped at angles, gardening gloves lay beside secateurs and a small sign says “Je suis en jardin”. I ring the bell and hear a bark.

It’s Sirius, a fifteen-year-old Laekenois, an ancient overgrown wire-haired terrier. He’s wobbly on his legs.

“Yes, I know,” says Elsbeth, wearing her ikat jacket and sturdy sandals. “But he has a good appetite and seems content, so I don’t want to kill him.”

Over a pot of peppermint tea, we begin.

“I had a very happy childhood in Stuttgart. My mother came from an old jewellers’ family; my grandfather did church decoration, tabernacles and so on. I played with precious stones like other people play with marbles.” She smiles, her blue eyes distant, framed by a soft grey bob.

“I liked school. I liked learning. I was always the first in class. Which meant I could do a lot of things on the side because I didn’t need much time for schoolwork. I collected Asian art when I was twelve, exchanging things with older collectors, such as Mesopotamian stamp seals.

“I had four older brothers, far older than me – so much fun! Our family was a pure male family, because my father didn’t want my aunts in the house. His friends used to come to play chess or billiards. My brothers brought friends home, but never girlfriends. That was not done. What they did outside the house, I don’t know.” Her grin suggests otherwise.

“How did an interest in Asian art lead to your expertise in moulage?”

“I wasn’t only interested in art, but science too. After a diploma in Technical Chemistry, I attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart, where I learned sculpting and painting. By chance, I met Lotte Volger, the greatest moulageuse, who founded the Zürich collection in 1918. She had already retired, but she offered me the chance to be her last student. To share her secret recipe.”

“What a wonderful opportunity!”

“Yes, it was, but I didn’t want to take it. I wanted to go to India.”

“Why?”

“Just out of curiosity. But my mother, a highly intelligent and cultured woman, said Volger is offering you a rare chance. It doesn’t take long, you should do it. So I did. That recipe was very expensive. My mother sacrificed one of her precious stones to pay for it.

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