Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The monument to the dead of the Père-Lachaise cemetery, inaugurated on November 1, 1899 after twelve years of work, is the work of sculptor Paul-Albert Bartholomew. This pacifist monument, dedicated to all the dead without distinction, is the first to honour the memory of the fighters of both sides, especially those of the 1870 war. It was jointly acquired by the State and the city of Paris in 1895, after its presentation at the Salon des Beaux-Arts, thanks to the initiative of Raymond Poincaré, then Minister of Fine Arts.

Initially, the installation of the monument to the Père-Lachaise was contested by the Marbrier Corporation, which proposed to place it on the public road behind the former Palace of the Trocadéro. The final decision, however, maintained its original location in the heart of the cemetery, where it integrated into the axis formed by the main entrance and the chapel. An ossuary was added in the 1950s under the hill that separates it from the chapel.

The monument, made of Euville stone, is 8 meters high and 14.10 meters wide. It represents 21 figures in bas-relief, symbolizing pain and resignation from death. Bartholomew adds two wings to the original 1895 model to fit its location. The work was hailed by the press as a masterpiece of modern sculpture, although criticized by some for its secular character and lack of reference to the resurrection.

Ranked a historical monument in 1983, the monument to the dead of the Père-Lachaise is now considered the most important memorial site in Paris. Fragments and preparatory studies are preserved in several museums, including the Orsay Museum, the Lyon Museum of Fine Arts, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Its inauguration attracted nearly 90,000 people, marking its symbolic importance from its very beginning.

The work is part of an artistic and humanist approach, where Bartholomew, marked by the death of his wife Prosperie de Fleury in 1887, expresses a universal vision of suffering and the afterlife. The inscriptions on the monument, including "To the Dead" and a verse evoking a shining light on "the land of the shadow of death", reinforce his message of hope and peace.

External links