Silence (1842), Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris
While walking around Père-Lachaise Cemetery last Summer I happen upon the amazing tombstone with the famous sculpture "Silence" by Antoine-Augustin Préault (October 6, 1809 - January 11, 1879) a French sculptor of the "Romantic" movement. Born in the Marais district of Paris, he was better known during his lifetime as Auguste Préault.
A student of David d'Angers, Préault first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1833. He was not favorably looked upon by some of the artistic community's elite due to his outspokenness and because he was part of the circle of activists who participated in the French Revolution of 1830. During that period of turmoil, Préault's studio was vandalized and many of his plaster models were destroyed. As a result of these circumstances his work has been largely overshadowed by his contemporaries.
Antoine-Augustin Préault died in Paris in 1879 and was interred in the Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Préault's enigmatic composition called "Le Silence" used on the tomb of Jacob Roblès
Jacob Roblès / né au Port-au-Prince (St-Domingue) / le 13 April 1782 / mort à Paris le 10 March 1842
In this tomb Préault succeeded in symbolizing the impassable frontier separating the world of the living from that of the dead.
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