People Alphonse De Lamartine
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
PEOPLE ❘ ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE 80 ❘ FRANCE TODAY Aug/Sep 2019 FT175.LAMARTINE.indd 80 05/07/2019 15:13 ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE ❘ PEOPLE On the 150th anniversary of Alphonse de Lamartine’s death, Marion Sauvebois unspools the life of the beloved poet, national hero, abolitionist and enduring enigma, whose passing sparked a furious race for the privilege to host his memorial MONUMENT MAN hroughout his life Alphonse de Lamartine A revered and hugely-prolific Romantic poet, political made a noise – and even in death he didn't maverick, voice of the oppressed, abolitionist, journalist, go quietly. acting President… Lamartine was a living legend. And not His corpse barely room-temperature, an immune to stoking his own mystique. all-out bidding war broke out over which He was also, well, just a man. A father beset by tragedy, city would get the honour of hosting the who lost his two young children (and later his wife) to Tnational treasure’s official memorial statue. Two days after tuberculosis; an inveterate gambler (everyone agrees); an his passing on February 28, 1869, canny Paris got a head adulterer with a litter of illegitimate bairns (now that start, kicking off France’s first-ever crowdfunding campaign depends on who you ask: women tend to lean towards yes, – pipping his birthplace of Mâcon to the post by 72 hours. men dismiss it as utter poppycock); a charitable soul who Rightly peeved, his fellow Mâconnais struck back with a paid for his beneficence with dire poverty. rival pledge drive, urging every man, woman and child to Digging into his past is akin to being yanked down a dig deep. This was a battle fought on doorsteps, with rabbit hole of ‘he said, she said’. The deeper you delve into leaflets, goodwill and, no doubt, a great deal of arm- the meanders of his life, the more elusive the man. twisting. By December, the humble Burgundian nook had “He was complex – and very hard to pin down,” concedes raised 55,204 Francs to Paris’s 20,000. The capital Claire, craning her neck to catch one final glimpse of the grudgingly bowed out. Lamartine was heading home. barely discernible monument, his sharp features a blur in the fading light. For all its simplicity, there is, I realise, THE MAN, THE MYTH something aptly inscrutable about the unassuming statue. “He has an undeniable aura about him,” says my guide, “One thing is certain,” she chuckles warmly. “Two cities Claire, as the hotly-contested statue finally comes into view. fighting over him: he would have loved it.” Pen poised, eyeline set on the horizon, our bronze-hewn hero stands sentinel on Mâcon’s riverbank, journal in hand, THE PHILIPPES dreaming up his next cause célèbre. There’s no swifter way to puzzle out the man from the myth It’s all I can do to stifle a pang of disappointment at the than a quick powwow with Philippe Sornay and Philippe sight of the rather plain (if fetchingly silhouetted against Mignot, or “the Philippes” as they are known locally, in the the setting sun) rendering. very places that stirred Lamartine’s imagination and This is the monument that launched a thousand door deep-rooted sense of (in)justice. knocks? But who am I to argue with the good folk and The respective owners of his childhood home in Milly- IMAGE © FLORIAN DUBERSTEN - OT MÂCONNAIS © FLORIAN DUBERSTEN - OT IMAGE tastemakers at the École des Beaux-Arts? Lamartine and the Château de Saint-Point, just a ❯❯ Alphonse de Lamartine's hotly- contested memorial statue stands sentinel on the banks of the Saône river in his birthplace of Mâcon Aug/Sep 2019 FRANCE TODAY ❘ 81 FT175.LAMARTINE.indd 81 05/07/2019 15:14 PEOPLE ❘ ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE Clockwise from top left: stone’s throw from Mâcon, are self-appointed alive. Few mementos of his life here remain, besides a Rumour has it Lamartine custodians of the radical’s rich legacy – and good name. set of octagonal dinner plates and the odd portrait, the embarked on a torrid affair They both stand firm in their belief that the Father of bulk of his possessions having been sold off to repay with the owner of the Château Romanticism was far from the philanderer most would mounting debts long before his death. One crucial de Pierreclos; the Château de Saint-Point; racked with have him be. And they have endless counter-arguments tradition subsists, however. debts, the poet had to part to set tattle-tales right. “Lamartine’s mother welcomed the misery of the with his childhood home Of course, if you are chomping at the bit for the dirty world into her home,” Philippe Sornay explains. “She in Milly-Lamartine; (inset) deets, take a detour via the Château de Pierreclos – a devoted her life to helping others and encouraged him Philippe Sornay, whose family has owned Lamartine's marvel of Burgundian glazed roof-tiles – where to play with the local children so the front door was Maison d'Enfance for seven vigneronne Anne-Françoise Pidault has no qualms always left open. And we carry on the tradition. I have generations; the gate of his about regaling guests with the juicy particulars of his stayed faithful to the spirit of Lamartine and his childhood home remains (alleged) trysts. In fact, a whole panel in her B&B’s open-mindedness,” he adds with obvious pride. forever open; head to the poet's birthplace of Mâcon for small museum recounts how the young poet fell head “The door opens out onto the outside world, breathtaking riverside views over heels for the lady of the manor and embarked on a everybody is welcome.” He credits this open-door passionate dalliance with the married woman, who policy as the “foundation of Lamartine’s politics”, fuel reportedly bore him a child. When I point out to her for his sensitivity to the plight of the less fortunate and that Messieurs Sornay and Mignot vehemently deny the bedrock of his egalitarian views. His mother also the affair, she chuckles: “If the Philippes say so – I seemingly drilled into him a lasting sense of respect for wasn’t there!” the fairer sex. Decades ahead of his time, he would go Snug amid vineyard-studded Mâconnais, La Maison on to champion education for women and even d’Enfance (childhood home) de Lamartine is a rustic founded a girls’ school. That being said, he drew the pied-à-terre without airs, its only standout feature line at their right to vote… sheets of cascading ivy. This, I discover, is a late “The leading thread of his career and life was how to addition, courtesy of Lamartine’s indulgent mother. In improve the living conditions of the people. And he a bout of poetic licence, it appears the bard had waxed lived what he preached.” He trails off before adding a little too lyrical about the evergreen leaves with disarming conviction: “He wasn’t quite shimmying up the family seat's façade, prompting the spendthrift people made him out to raised eyebrows from visitors faced with a bare stone be. But he was generous to a fault and frontage on arrival. Keen to salvage her son’s honour, gave away far more than he had. As his dutiful maman got planting to keep the fantasy the only male heir, he inherited IMAGES © BOURGOGNE-FRANCHE-COMTÉ TOURISME, ALAMY, MARION SAUVEBOIS, SHUTTERSTOCK MARION SAUVEBOIS, ALAMY, TOURISME, © BOURGOGNE-FRANCHE-COMTÉ IMAGES 82 ❘ FRANCE TODAY Aug/Sep 2019 FT175.LAMARTINE.indd 82 05/07/2019 15:14 ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE ❘ PEOPLE THE SAGA CONTINUES… Make a beeline for Mâcon’s his mock-up. Yet, upon closer Musée des Ursulines inspection, many found the for a blow-by-blow account statue only bore a passing of the town’s face-off with resemblance to the great Paris, the ensuing argy-bargy man. So a sheepish Falguière about where on home turf was marched back to the to erect the monument, and studio for last-minute tweaks the hotly-contested design – until Lamartine’s niece and competition. A whopping friends were satisfied he’d 27 sculptor-architect teams created a perfect likeness. threw their hat in the ring for The museum unveiled a this commission of a lifetime. shiny new wing dedicated to Sculptor extraordinaire Lamartine’s life and times on Alexandre Falguière won and July 20. wasted no time in fine-tuning www.macon.fr insists. “I want people to feel what this house meant “THE LEADING THREAD OF to Lamartine.” HIS CAREER AND LIFE WAS LIVING MUSEUM HOW TO IMPROVE THE LIVING While Milly-Lamartine holds precious few remnants of CONDITIONS OF THE PEOPLE” Lamartine’s existence, Saint-Point is a vast time capsule and a wall-to-wall shrine to the politician and poet. His office upstairs has remained virtually untouched, everything but made sure his sisters never wanted for shelves groaning under the weight of his oeuvre – anything. And he would give away priceless heirlooms owner Philippe Mignot’s ever-growing library includes to locals as wedding gifts or when they needed money countless first editions of his tracts, poetry collections, – that’s why there is not much left in the house. He essays and histories – while the living room is flanked couldn’t stop himself. His generosity was his downfall. on all corners by display cases heaving with relics of In the end, he was left with nothing.” his political, literary and love life. This “hellish downward spiral” is how Philippe’s Among them are the neckerchief reportedly worn by family came to acquire the Lamartine homestead in his first love Graziella, a Neapolitan fisherman’s 1861.