Cheng in D27

 The carvings speak for themselves.

Yvette Chauviré in D44

Yvette Chauviré, French ballerina, has a lovely portrait medallion (sculptor unknown) over her tomb in division 44.

The first gravesite image is from Wikimedia before the gravestone was placed and the second from Facebook.

The 1815 Roger Map

Roger breaks the cemetery down into six sériés to which he assigns a name of one of the prominent graves in that area. 

He uses a number system to identify 21 of the more notable gravesites.

Roger et fils, In Le Champ du Repos Le Champ du Repos, ou Le Cimetière MONT-LOUIS, dit du Père Lachaise. . . two volumes. Paris: Lebegue, September 1816.

 

Postcard from Paris: Caillat in Père-Lachaise D2

This lovely monument was designed by Hector Guimard, who also designed those wonderful, whimsical art nouveau entrances to the Paris Metro.

D2 along Avenue de la Conservation. Photo c. 1900.

monument in 2006

Le Declin lost and found

Sculpted by Clément Leopold Steiner, and once located in what was called Square Père-Lachaise, now Square Samuel de Champlain, overlooking Avenue Gambetta, this touching, and somewhat melancholic statue was removed many years ago. 

The good news is that Adam Roberts of the Invisible Paris blog has tracked down the story behind the statue and what became of it.

 Located not far from where Paul Moreau-Vauthier's Memorial to the Victims of Revolution now stands.

Sarah Bernhardt D44 in Père-lachaise

Two undated photos from Paris archives depicting a gathering of local notables to honor  the life of internationally acclaimed actress and artist, Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923), followed by a present view (note the plaque is gone).

View from Mont-Louis

Before it became Père-Lachaise the cemetery was called Mont-Louis, for a long time a retreat for Jesuits.

Here's a print dated c. 1750 showing a very unique view of Paris from the top of the eastern hills. The house in the left of the photo is about where the chapel is today; the large cluster of trees that dominate the photo corresponds roughly to division 53. (Thanks Marie for forwarding the link1)

Two puzzles in Père-Lachaise Cemetery

OK, up front there are way more than just two puzzles to be found in those 107 hilltop acres on the east side of Paris. As some of you know, I've been working on identifying and locating all the artwork in Père-lachaise and right now I'm trying to identify two very specific and rather dramatic reliefs.

The first one is in D6, along the same line as the bust of Lapommeraye, and not far off of Chemin Lebrun. It's a unique stone with very same relief on both sides of the monument but aside from the word ordre there is no identifying inscription (as you can see one side is much eroded).

The second relief sits in D39 just along Avenue des Acacias where it becomes Avenue Transversale No. 1, close to the Turpin mausoleum and just up from Chemin Suchet.

(photos by Pierre-Yves Beaudouin, wikimedia)

Elisa Mercoeur D17 Père-Lachaise

Elisa Mercoeur's (1809-1835)  monument has been completely overhauled is as good as new -- right down to carving her poem la cimetière. (Thanks Marie for forwarding the new image.)

The way it looked . . .

. . .  and the way it is now:

Oh, and this was the monument c. 1840:

Rothschild - division 7 in Pere-Lachaise then and now

November 1868 Le Monde illustré

Heloise and Abelard - division 7 in Pere-Lachaise then and now

1821

Anton Reicha - division 7 in Pere-Lachaise then and now

Anton Reicha (1770-1836) was a Czech-born, naturalized French music composer.

1837 Normand

after the restoration in 2010

Visconti - division 4 in Pere-Lachaise then and now

Ennius Quirnus Visconti (1751-1818) and his son Louis Tullien Joachim Visconti (1791-1853). An Italian archeologist, Ennius was curator of the Capitoline Museum in Rome before supervising the antiquities room at the Louvre. He was originally buried in what is now division 10 but removed to division 4 next to his son, architect and designer Louis Tullien. Louis designed many Parisian buildings and squares, including the Place Saint Sulpice, but is perhaps most well-known for designing the tomb of Napoleon at Les Invalides.

1832 in Normand

1840 Marty

Ennius (rear) and Louis (front) Visconti - photograph by Gede

Memorial to the Victims of June 1832 - division 6 in Pere-Lachaise then and now

Erected by the city of Paris, this memorial pays homage to members of the municipal and national guard who perished during the uprising of 20 June 1832.

Their names are listed on the obelisk, largely illegible today, and bodies were interred in the open space in front of memorial:

Pierre Hippolyte Aubert, Francois Michel Bellier, Nicolas Beranger, Jean Cartier, Jacques Louis Leonard Chollet, Charles Joseph Cocquelet, Pierre Condamine, Claude Duc, Henri Fauchier, Joseph Folenfant, Bernard Forest, Pierre Gaultier, Jean Julien Geoffroy, Felix Gilles, Gravet, Pierre Joseph Guenifet, Charles Herera, Jean Francois Hervet, Francois Kolleter, Jean Baptiste Ladroix, Eugene Lavrilliere, Emile Lefort, Louis Victor Lemoine, Jean Lhubert, Jean Louis Lointier, Dominique Morge, Antoine Marquez, Etienne Mathieux, Louis Menard, Jean Moder, Pierre Auguste Mousseau, Francois Munerel, Jean Pargala, Francois Xavier Pernot, Jean Baptiste Honore Prevost, Louis Pussier, Jean Raud, Mathias Reybel, Francois Xavier Sattlair, Dominique Schmitt, Pierre Georges Senegon, Charles Louis Vanherseque, Claude Weber

For more information plus an illustration of the monument circa 1840 see Les Principeaux Monuments Funeraires du Pere-Lachaise, de Montmartre, du Mont-Parnasse et autres Cimetieres de Paris (1840) by Rousseau, Lassalle and Marty.

There seems to be a bit of confusion about this monument. As noted above, Marty et al make it clear it was erected for the victims of 1832, yet more recent sources, particularly in Valverde and Hughes Le Cimetiere du Pere-Lachaise and in Philippe Landru's exhaustive website, the monument supposedly honors those killed in the 1848 uprising. And Bertrand Beyern writes that the monument honors those killed in 1832, 1834, 1835 and 1848.

A very small but nonetheless perplexing puzzle. . .

Charles Lebrun - division 5 in Pere-Lachaise then and now

Charles-François Lebrun, 1st Duke of Plaisance, prince of the Empire (1739–1824) was a French statesman.

Earliest burials in Pere-Lachaise and the Rogers - numbers from the Paris city archives

Thanks to that indefatigable researcher Marie B., we now have much clearer picture of the earliest burials of Pere-Lachaise Cemetery.

As you may recall from a previous discussion of the seminal work by Mr. Roger and his son, they calculated a total of 2,174 burials by the time they published their two-volume series at the end of 1816. This appeared to include permanent as well as temporary burials but not the mass graves. They also sketched out each and every grave as each grave appeared. Impressive indeed.

What we now know is that by the end of 1816 there were 660 permanent burials, 3,663 five-year temporary burials and 49,714 mass grave interments for a total of 54,037 bodies laid to rest in Pere-Lachaise. (Burials included bodies from the 3rd, 4th, 5th. 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th arrondissements -- old numbers).

Excluding the mass burials - the Rogers were apparently interested only in graves with a marker of one sort or another and that each grave in their their printed list matches a illustrated version in their "graphic maps" of all the graves) that leaves 660 permanent and 3,663 temporary graves for a total of 4323 interments. Yet their number of 2,174 falls far short. Why?

Assuming the Rogers were diligent in their attempt to identify every burial -- and it would appear they were from their two volumes of listings as well as their detailed graphic maps -- then it is most likely that some if not many of the temporary graves simply lacked a marker.

I suspect the graphic maps might give us a clue to this puzzle. Looking at plates 34, 35 and 36 in volume 2 we can see they sketched row upon row of crosses, quite likely wooden crosses and probably temporary.

Still, as discussed in my earlier post, the Rogers did leave out a number of individuals listed in other early guides to the cemetery so it seems clear that they also missed a few marked graves. But that wouldn't account for the huge discrepancy;  yet they seemed so thorough. . .

We'll probably never know for sure why the Rogers missed so many graves but it would seem safe to conclude that it was their intention to do so.

The breakdown of burials for 1804-1816 is as follows: permanent-temporary-mass-total for that year

1804: 1-17-1491-1509
1805: 2-39-2099-2140
1806: 3-42-2394-2439
1807: 10-52-2694-2756
1808: 14-62-2271-2347
1809: 17-72-2017-2106
1810: 42-82-2371-2495
1811: 32-100-2267-2399
1812: 66-143-2466-2675
1813: 119-359-3697-4175
1814: 90-891-10123-11104
1815: 115-939-8668-9722
1816: 149-865-7156-8170
TOTAL: 660-3663-49714-54037

The dramatic spike total burials in 1814 was most likely the consequence of the the Battle for Paris which ended with Napoleon's capitulation to the Allies and his forced exile to the island of Elba.

(Source: Archives de Paris, VI.15.1.1326W, Archives des Pompes funèbres de Paris - Paris municipal funeral home archives.)

Auber - division 4 in Pere-Lachaise then and now

Daniel Francois Esprit Auber (1782-1871) was a French music composer known largely for his work in grand opera. You can learn about Auber and his work right here.

Charles Henri Ver Huell - division 28 in Pere-Lachaise - then and now

Charles Henri or Carel Hendrik Ver Huell (also Verhuell, 1764-1845) was a Dutch, and later French, admiral and statesman.

Buried with Charles are his brother Christian Antoine (1760-1832) a Dutch admiral, and Charles's two sons: Maurice (1791-1810) and Charles (1797-1827). The monument was erected following the death of Maurice.

1825 by C. P. Arnaud

2013

Girodet-Trioson - division 28 Pere-Lachaise - then and now

Louis Girodet (also known as Girodet de Roucy-Trioson or Girodet-Trioson, 1767–1824) was a French painter and pupil of Jacques-Louis David. He is buried in division 28.

1832 by Quaglia

1840 by Marty

2006 by Steve Soper

General Maximillien Foy - division 28 Pere-Lachaise - then and now

Maximillien Sébastien Foy (1775–1825) was a French military leader during the Napoleonic Wars and wrote as highly-regarded history of the Peninsular War. Toward the end of his life he was a member of the national Chamber of Deputies and noted for his eloquence.

1828 by Marchant

c. 1830 by Pugin

1832 by Quaglia

1836 by Richard

1840 by Marty

c. 1841 by Furne

by Civeton

1855 by Solomon

by Didier Grau