A few tombs...

During a recent visit to the Père Lachaise cemetery (see previous posts here and here), I thought I should look, among the about 70.000 tombs, for the ones of some famous painters, sculptors… They are not always that easy to find – there are not the same crowds around them as e.g. with the tombs of Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison…

Well I found a few, which I will show without any particular order.

Here is the one of Théodore Géricault (1791-1824), of course especially known for his painting “The raft of the Medusa”. The sculptures on his tomb are by Antoine Etex (1808-1888).

When I found the one of Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894), I took also a photo of the little inside altar. I posted about him already, at least twice, see here and here… also telling how we must thank him and his fortune for the number of impressionist paintings that could be saved in French museums.

Honoré Daumier (1808-1879) was an excellent painter and sculptor, but remains perhaps especially known for his caricatures, often politically quite courageous.    

Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) is here represented by a self-portrait, when he was 39, and and a later photo by Nadar (I will revert to him further down). Well, among a number of paintings, we may especially remember “Liberty leading the people” from 1830, the portrait of Chopin from 1838 (Chopin was 28)… I mentioned Delacroix several time in my posts, e.g. here, here, here, here, here… but I can’t now find the one I’m sure I once made about his museum. L  I found only this one, mentioning the outside of the museum.

I mentioned already Nadar (real name Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, 1820-1910) when showing the photo of Delacroix. He (and later also other members of his family) photographed almost all celebrities of their time, but Nadar was also an excellent caricaturist (see Balzac here). He took photos from the air already in the 1860’s, he was a friend of the future impressionists and their first exhibition in 1874 took place in his studio.  I wrote about it here.

The paintings by Camille Corot (1796-1875) may be seen as neo-classical, but are also seen as anticipating the impressionism, which started more or less when he died. He was also much related to the “Barbizon School” (see previous post here).

David d’Angers was a name Pierre-Jean David (1788-1856) adopted when he as a student joined the studio of Jacques-Louis David in order to distinguish himself from the master painter. He was a sculptor and medalist, but today we may especially remember him for the pediment of the Pantheon (see previous posts).   

George Seurat (1859-1891), a post-impressionist, especially known for his pointillism technique. We all recognize his very large painting “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte”. 

Something completely different: Tignous is the synonym for Bernard Verlac (1957-2015), one of the victims of the Charlie-Hebdo shooting. He had been on their staff since 1992. Maybe a look on my post from January 2015?  

Marie Laurencin (1883-1956) was a member of the Picasso team, more than a good friend of Guillaume Apollinaire. She was one of the few women to be considered as - more or less - cubist painters. Here we can see a self-portrait from 1908 (she was 25) and one from 1909 where Apollinaire is in the middle… and we can recognize from the left to the right: Gertrude Stein, Fernande Olivier, ?, Picasso’s dog, Apollinaire, Picasso, the poet Marguerite Gillot, the poet Maurice Cremnitz (Maurice Chevrier)… and Marie herself at the piano.  (I have of course posted quite often on Picasso, see e.g. here.)

There is a columbarium at the cemetery with thousands of urns. One has the number 2102 – Max Ernst (1891 – 1976).  There is a lot to say about his life - his friends include a number of famous names (he was married to Peggy Guggenheim for a while …), but you can read on Wikipedia. I wrote about him and his fellow artists at the “Fusains” in the Montmartre area in a post here.

Then there is of course the tomb where Amadeo Modigliani (1884-1920) is buried together with his last companion Jeanne Hébuterne (1898-1920). It was only some ten years after her suicide that the Hébuterne parents agreed that she could rest beside Amadeo. Their tragic story is well-known and I mentioned it again in this post and have of course referred to Modigliani quite often, e.g. here and here.  

I was desperately looking for the tomb of Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899), the fantastic animal painter, but never found it. It should be here! I have talked about Rosa in some posts, e.g. here and here.

A last tomb this time is that of Gertrude Stein (1874 – 1946), novelist, poet, but especially known as sponsor and friend of Picasso, Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Matisse… We know her also for the portrait Picasso made of her in 1906. On one of the photos here, she is sitting at the Closerie des Lilas with the Hemingway kid. On another photo we see her together with her life partner Alice B. Toklas (1877-1967), with whom she shares the grave.

I may come back with other tombs another time…

In the meantime I cannot avoid showing some of the wild flowers I so much like to see in the cemeteries.