Curated category
Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery
- Oscar WildeOscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde arrived in the world on the 16th of October 1854 at 21 Westland Row in Dublin, and from the very beginning his life…
- Eléonore Denuelle de La PlaigneEléonore Denuelle de La Plaigne was born on the 13th of September 1787, into a middle-class French family, and she died on the 30th of January 1868 having…
- Max ErnstMax Ernst died on the 1st of August 1914. That, at least, was how he described it. In his autobiography, he wrote: "On the first of August 1914 M.E. died.
- MolièreMolière collapsed on stage on the 17th of February 1673, mid-performance, coughing and haemorrhaging blood. He was playing Argan, a hypochondriac obsessed…
- Gioachino RossiniGioachino Rossini wrote his last opera while still in his thirties, then stopped composing operas for the remaining 40 years of his life.
- Eugène BurnoufEugène Burnouf died on the 28th of May 1852, the same year his translation of the Lotus Sutra finally appeared in print.
- Jim MorrisonJim Morrison was found dead in a Paris bathtub on the morning of Saturday, the 3rd of July, 1971. He was 27 years old. No doctor had been called.
- Eugène DelacroixEugène Delacroix once heard the poet and critic Baudelaire describe him this way: "Delacroix was passionately in love with passion, but coldly determined to…
- Édouard DaladierÉdouard Daladier landed at Le Bourget Airfield on the 30th of September 1938 to a crowd of cheering Parisians. They waved and shouted, relieved that the man…
- Jacques-Louis DavidJacques-Louis David was born in Paris on the 30th of August 1748, into a world of powdered wigs, gilded ceilings, and a painting style built on prettiness.
- Joachim MuratJoachim Murat, born on the 25th of March 1767 in a small town in southwestern France, died facing a firing squad on the 13th of October 1815 in Pizzo Calabro.
- Édouard DetailleJean-Baptiste Édouard Detaille entered the world on the 5th of October 1848 in Paris. He grew up in Picardy within a prosperous military family.
- Paul BarrasPaul Barras, born on the 30th of June 1755 in the small Provencal town of Fox-Amphoux, rose from a noble family to become the most powerful executive in…
- Antoine-Jean GrosAntoine-Jean Gros was born in Paris on the 16th of March 1771, the son of two painters, in a city on the edge of revolution.
- Emmanuel Joseph SieyèsEmmanuel Joseph Sieyès published a slim pamphlet in January 1789 and, within months, helped bring down a social order that had stood for centuries.
- Louis-Guillaume OttoLouis-Guillaume Otto, comte de Mosloy, wrote a letter on the 6th of July 1799 that most historians have overlooked for centuries.
- Joseph FourierJoseph Fourier fell down a flight of stairs on the 4th of May 1830. He had been living with a heart condition since his days in Egypt and Grenoble, but that…
- Charles-Pierre AugereauCharles-Pierre-François Augereau was born on the 21st of October 1757 in Faubourg Saint-Marceau, Paris, the son of a fruit seller.
- Jean-Baptiste SayJean-Baptiste Say was born in Lyon on the 5th of January 1767, into a Protestant family whose roots had been uprooted by religious persecution a generation…
- Charles de SteubenCharles de Steuben stood before the Salon de Paris in 1812 and unveiled a canvas of Peter the Great fighting a storm on Lake Ladoga.
- Charles-François LebrunCharles-François Lebrun was born on the 19th of March 1739 in Saint-Sauveur-Lendelin, a small town in the Manche region of France, and he would live to see…
- Jean-Jacques-Régis de CambacérèsJean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès was born in Montpellier on the 18th of October 1753, into a family with deep roots in the legal profession.
- Louis ViscontiLouis Tullius Joachim Visconti was born in Rome on the 11th of February 1791, into a family so entwined with antiquity that the past was practically the…
- Alexandre Colonna-WalewskiAlexandre Colonna-Walewski was born on the 4th of May 1810 during a thunderstorm, and according to family lore, the lightning was taken as a sign that his…
- Gustave DoréGustave Doré created over 10,000 illustrations across his lifetime, and at the peak of his career he kept some 40 block-cutters employed just to translate…
- Michel NeyMichel Ney stood before a firing squad in Paris on the 7th of December 1815 and refused to wear a blindfold. His reason was simple and devastating: he had…
- Jules MicheletJules Michelet died on the 9th of February 1874, in the southern French town of Hyères, from a heart attack. He left behind nineteen volumes of French…