Meeting Oscar Wilde’s Grandson, Merlin Holland

May 15, 2022 by Carolyn Campbell

Photos by Fritz Holden, Reed Hutchinson and Carolyn Campbell

On April 28, 2022 I had the pleasure of attending a lecture at UCLA’s William Andrews Clark Library given by Oscar Wilde’s grandson, Merlin Holland, titled “Confounding the Critics, Surviving the Scandal: The Remarkable Reputation of Oscar Wilde.” I had met Merlin years before my bestselling book, City of Immortals: Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, was published. I was thrilled this time to gift him with a copy.

Following the lecture, we had a delightful conversation. I then walked through the Clark Library to view several items on display from the unparalleled Wilde collection, including a copy of De Profundis, plus personal correspondence from Wilde to his first and last lovers, Robert Ross and Lord Alfred Douglas, respectively.

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Vernissage at the Cemetery

March 17, 2018 by Carolyn Campbell

I was in Paris during November, 2016 and had the pleasure of meeting artist Milène Guermont at a Thanksgiving dinner hosted by expat and mutual friend Michael Kurcfeld, a producer of an ongoing series of video profiles of top fine-art photographers. Milène spoke of her sculpture project, “CAUSSE” installed in Montparnasse Cemetery; and I shared with her my life-long passion for Père Lachaise. With the juxtaposition of our creative interests in burial monuments, I am happy that we have stayed in touch across 6,000 miles. May her work be an inspiration to those considering a memorial tomb. It gives me great pleasure to share details of her recent artwork in Paris here on the City of Immortals blog.

Vernissage at the Cemetery

“In the history of the art of the burial tomb, it is today quite rare, if not almost impossible, to be able to express oneself artistically for a contemporary funerary artwork because the norms have come to constrain this ancestral expression. While we enjoy walking in our cemeteries, these new places are becoming boring. Except for “monuments to the memory of …” or commemorations of a famous person or a dramatic event, artists have deserted this direct reflection on death and one of the traditional rites, the burial.

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International Women’s Day

March 8, 2018 by Carolyn Campbell

No better time than International Women’s Day to celebrate some of the remarkable women buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery: Listed by those tombs featured in the City of Immortals tours.

Tour One:

Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (January 28, 1873–August 3, 1954). Colette was one of the leading literary figures in France and the author of dozens of books, such as Chéri, La Naissance du Jour, and Gigi, which was made into a film starring Maurice Chevalier, Louis Jordan, and Leslie Caron.

Rosa Bonheur (March 16, 1822–May 25, 1899). Bonheur was the most famous woman painter of the 19th century and the first renowned painter of animals; one of her best-known works, The Horse Fair, hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Bonheur lived with a lifelong friend Natalie Micas, and later Anna Klumke, her life partner. The three are buried together in a plot Bonheur purchased in Père Lachaise.

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Jeanne Hébuterne

January 25, 2018 by Carolyn Campbell

Jeanne Hébuterne (April 6, 1898 –January 25,1920) was a French artist, best known as the frequent subject and common-law wife of the artist Amedeo “Modi” Modigliani. Sadly, she took her own life on this day.

Hébuterne’s family had brought their daughter to their home after hearing that Modigliani had died, but the distraught Jeanne threw herself out of the fifth-floor apartment window, killing herself and her unborn child.

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Georges Méliès

January 21, 2018 by Carolyn Campbell

Legendary filmmaker Georges Méliès (December 8, 1861–January 21, 1938) said shortly before he passed away on this day, and after he had drawn a champagne bottle with the cork popped and bubbling over and shown it to his friends: “Laugh, my friends. Laugh with me, laugh for me, because I dream your dreams.”
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