Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s death mask was made by the sculptor Slavomir Iosifovich Tselinsky. It was kept by Modest Tchaikovsky, the composer’s brother.
The composer tragically died of cholera. The evening before getting sick, he spent at the Alexandrinsky Theater, watching “The Ardent Heart”. In the early morning of October 21, after returning from a dinner with friends at Leiner’s restaurant, the composer felt he had an upset stomach.
By the morning it worsened, but people thought it was a usual ailment, which usually passed quickly. That time his condition continued to deteriorate, the famous St. Petersburg doctor Lev Bernardovich Bertenson stated that Tchaikovsky had Asian cholera in a severe stage. On October 24, the situation became critical, during the day Tchaikovsky repeatedly lost consciousness and was delirious. By evening, the pulse began to slow down and breathing became difficult. After 10 pm, it was declared that there was no hope for the patient. Without regaining consciousness, as a result of pulmonary edema and weakened heart, the composer died on October 25 at 3.15 am.
In his last minutes, he was with his brothers Modest and Nikolay, his nephew Davydov and the doctor Mamonov. In the morning, a number of newspapers published short reports about Tchaikovsky’s death.
On the instructions of Emperor Alexander III, it was decided to hold the funeral in St. Petersburg. Hundreds of people came to say goodbye, and dozens of wreaths were delivered. Newspapers published reports on Tchaikovsky’s illness, interviews with his doctors, relatives and friends, and texts of numerous telegrams of condolence.
On the day of the funeral, on October 28, after Tchaikovsky’s funeral service in the Kazan Cathedral and a grand procession along Nevsky Prospekt, the composer’s body was buried in the Necropolis of the Masters of Art at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Three years later, a sculptural tombstone was installed on the grave. It was made by Pavel Kamensky according to the sketches of the director of the Imperial Theaters and a friend of the composer Ivan Vsevolozhsky. The composition consists of a bronze portrait of Tchaikovsky on a high granite slab, next to it is a muse crying over an open music notebook, behind the bust are a cast-iron cross and a floating angel.
