The Cemetery of Père-Lachaise cannot help but to make one think about mortality. It is vast in size and packed full of intricately carved grave markers and miniature chapels. It is almost an ode to architecture as much as an ode to death. Everything from tiny Gothic churches to Princess castles are used to house the alters used to morn the loss of loved ones. The great number of famous people who have been buried in this cemetery makes it a special attraction for tourists. Unfortunately, it is often discovered that the grandeur of an idol's tombstone does not match the important accomplishments of their life.
Oscar Wilde's tombstone was a large relief on a huge stone block. It is currently encased in plastic and fenced off because so many admirers have left messages and notes on his tombstone. It is rather undignified and not at all what the girls I was with were expecting. An Irish writer and poet, Oscar Wilde is best know for his novel,
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) and his play "The Importance of Being Earnest" (1895). He was one of the most successful playwrights in Late Victorian London. He was known for being fancily dressed and his exceptional wit. As a homosexual, he was convicted for "gross indecency" with other men and served two years hard labor in prison. After his release, he naturally left Britain for Paris when he died at the age of 46 and was buried in The Cemetery of Père-Lachaise. The suffering he underwent for his sexual orientation explains why so many well wishers today visit his grave and honor his memory. It is so sad that such a creative and wonderful man was treated to awfully for being himself.
Gertrude Stein's grave marker is quiet and understated, merely a stone slab. She appears to be less frequently visited in her death, perhaps because she is harder to find tucked away in the very back of the cemetery. An art collector and writer, Stein's home in Paris served as a gathering place and salon for expatriate American artists and writers. She encouraged and critiqued important people of her time, including Picasso, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald. Her popular memoir of her Paris years is titled
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas.
Georges Seurat was a French Post-Impressionist painter. His recognizable image is
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884–1886). This painting shows members of the various social classes enjoying various activities at the park. It like much of his other works utilizes the pointillism style of painting in which the image is created using a large number of small individual dots of color. The viewer's eyes blend the small dots into an image rather than the colors themselves being physically blended on the canvas. Seurat sought to create harmony and emotion in his art through scientific use of color. He used knowledge of perception and optical laws to create a new language of art which he called Chromoluminarism.
Photography and death are closely related topics because of the way a photograph freezes a moment in time. That moment has ceased to exist immediately, but the photograph lingers on preserving it's memory. This whole process is reminiscent of a graveyard. The people have long passed, but the tombstones preserve their names forever in our memory.
