Père-Lachaise in 1815 A New Method in the Study of Ephemeral Funerary Monuments Kaylee P. Alexander Figure 1. View of Père-Lachaise (4th Division), 2017, Paris, France. Photo by author. removal. It is my goal to demonstrate how Introduction monuments that have been removed or are likely to be removed can—even in Recently, the topic of monuments, and their physical absence—be used as specifically their removal, has been the profound sources of information for subject of frequent debate within the cultural analysis.1 context of the United States. However, the The visitor to Père-Lachaise today is trouble with monuments has never been confronted with rows of chapel-style exclusively American, nor is it a twenty- sepulchers, bronze and marble portraits, first-century matter. In the following, I and monumental sculptures dedicated to take the Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris the dead (fig. 1). Notable for its impres- as a case study and introduce a sive graves of great cultural heroes, from methodology for studying a site where Honoré de Balzac to Jim Morrison, the the vast majority of monuments have Parisian cemetery has often been treated been removed or are subject to future as an open-air museum, a sculpture 16 garden where one can encounter works of located two kilometers east of what were great nineteenth-century French artists.2 then the city limits of Paris, was inaugurated Walking in Père-Lachaise today, one on May 21, 1804. Constructed over the almost forgets that the site is a cemetery, former estate of François d’Aix de la Chaise, yet this nearly 110-acre park contains the Mont-Louis soon became known as the 3 burials of over one million people. Cemetery of Père-Lachaise. In this paper, I first demonstrate how Following the inauguration of Père- (1) nineteenth-century funerary Lachaise, the Imperial Decree of 23 prairial monuments encountered in situ today an XII (June 12, 1804) was issued from the inaccurately represent the French Palace of Saint-Cloud. The articles of the cemetery over the course of its develop- decree pertaining specifically to burial set ment; and (2) that as a result, previous into law across France what Père-Lachaise studies of these cemeteries have been had ultimately accomplished for Paris: they heavily predisposed to survival bias. The established a heavily regulated, efficient, purpose of this article, then, will be to and salubrious system of burial across the explain a new methodology for examining empire. Among the regulations introduced the cemetery in the aggregate so to was the proscription against burials within public spaces or buildings utilized by the generate a more precise historical 4 representation of funerary monuments in living. Additionally, all cities and towns this period. To begin, I will provide a brief were required to establish new public burial overview of French burial regulations and sites, which would be located at least thirty- five meters from their borders, and all future the founding of Père-Lachaise Cemetery. burials were now to take place within From there I will focus on the methods of separate plots (at least one and a half meters my ongoing research and will share some deep and eighty centimeters wide) with a preliminary observations that will guide minimum of thirty centimeters between each the future development of this research. plot on all sides.5 Even more important than these spatial policies, however, were those regarding time. Article 6 of title I stated: Historical Context To avoid the danger posed by renewing By the end of the eighteenth century, the burial pits too early, the opening of churchyards of Paris were perceived as a burial pits for new burials shall take mounting threat to public health. place only in five-year increments; Overcrowding had resulted in improper consequently, the terrain intended to burials, and the stench emanating from these form burial sites will be extended five central sites was seen as a leading cause of times more than the space necessary to disease. In the 1780s, the government deposit the presumed number of dead responded by issuing a number of new that could be interred there each year.6 regulations including, in 1786, the suppression of churchyard cemeteries and This meant that, while all citizens had the the transferal of remains to what would right to an individual burial plot within one eventually become the Catacombs of Paris. of these new cemeteries regardless of class Although change began under the ancien or religion, they were only entitled to that régime, the most significant transformation plot for five years, after which it could be of burial practice in France took place under reopened and reused. This was the case for Napoleon. The Cemetery of Mont-Louis, 17 both communal burial territory, which was marble worker’s warehouse and studio. This provided free of charge, and concessions detail is indicative of the frankness of this temporaires (temporary concessions), which temporary concession system, and the were private land concessions that could be inevitable removal of funeral monuments. renewed to avoid recuperation by the state. This is underscored by the people strolling Another way to avoid this was to purchase a past the heap, seemingly indifferent to the concession à la perpétuité (concessions for short lifespans of their loved-ones’ life), which was intended to grant the monuments (and their own future concession in perpetuity.7 It is because of monuments). Despite this apparent this system that French cemeteries have ephemerality, the willingness to pay for such been subject to a constantly changing monuments remained rather high. landscape, which is a rather uncomfortable This highly transient system of concept, particularly for Americans who commemoration has important repercussions tend to own rather than rent their final for the ways in which the cemetery should resting places. be studied. What is at stake for scholars In light of what we know about seeking to study nineteenth-century funerary temporary burial concessions in France, an monuments in France is essentially the issue interesting detail appears at the lower right of survival bias. Survival bias is the logical of an 1815 engraving of Père-Lachaise error that results from concentrating on Cemetery (fig. 2). A pile of recently people or things that have passed some removed headstones has been piled rather selection process and, consequently, recklessly in front of what was likely a overlooking those people or things that did Figure 2. 3ème vue du Cimetière du Père Lachaise prise de l’entrée (detail) in Vues de Paris et des environs, dessinées par Courvoisier, L. Garnerey, La Gardette (Paris: Basset, 1815), vol. 1, n.p., pl. 6. Collection of the Bibliothèque des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. 18 not. This selection bias can result in a Data Source number of false conclusions, such as the belief that sculpture played a conspicuous The purpose of this project was to role in nineteenth-century burials at Père- pinpoint a methodology that would Lachaise. circumvent the issue of survival bias by Looking ahead a decade, records from the examining all of the monuments known to year 1824 (table 1) show that, among the have been in Père-Lachaise Cemetery at a over-thirteen-thousand Christian burials that given time, rather than only those that took place in the Cemetery of Père-Lachaise remain in situ today. The rationale was that year, only 11 percent of the total that a study of the cemetery in the monuments erected were produced at a cost aggregate might yield a more nuanced over one hundred francs. Further, of the total picture of how this site may have read to spent on funerary monuments in Père- nineteenth-century residents and visitors. Lachaise in 1824, less than 4 percent of the Although the parameters were set around total cost went toward the production of nineteenth-century Paris, these methods sculptural elements. may be aptly used to address other The abundance of sculptural works in geographical and chronological contexts. Père-Lachaise today has lead to a Again, the primary issue in distorted study of the cemetery, in which investigating these kinds of monuments scholars tend to overemphasize the was the high turnover rate for non- importance of sculpture and ignore the perpetual concessions. Much of this cultural significance of popular material simply no longer exists. There- monuments to the point of erasure fore a usable proxy needed to be beyond that of the purely material. The identified; this turned out to be an 1816 high concentration of sculptural works is, publication, Le Champ du Repos. Compiled however, more a reflection of our by an editor identified only as M. Roger, contemporary society, which seeks to and his son over the course of two years, preserve these objects while others are this two-volume work contains the suppressed due to the strict regulatory epitaphs for over two thousand environment surrounding burials in monuments that were in Père-Lachaise by France. In the nineteenth century, these the end of 1815.9 more conspicuous works, however, Already in 1815 it was proving difficult accounted for a rather insignificant share to capture the state of the cemetery. In of the cemetery’s contents. Thus, to study the forward to Le Champ du Repos, the Père-Lachaise from the position of reader is cautioned that the constant sculptural works is, I argue, inaccurate. construction of new monuments and the This inaccuracy is responsible for the moving of others has challenged the recurring narrative that, through the editors’ ability to capture the cemetery cemetery’s monuments, one could have with complete information.10 Further, and easily read all the class divisions of the the editors do not mention this detail, the 8 city.