Tomb of the Raspail Family

The Milhomme figure of Grief in the P�re-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris begot many more of the same kind, but the scenes of affliction came to an end with the years 1820-25. They were replaced either by recumbent effigies, after 1840, or by reliefs modifying the theme so as to bring out the idea of separation. In most of these, the survivor communes at the grave of the departed. In the P�re-Lachaise Cemetery a fine example of this style, inspired by antique models and made fashionable by Houdon and Canova, is the tomb of the Comte de Bourcke, affirms Christian faith in resurrection, ‘Expectantes beatem spem’, but in a widely disseminated engraving this was amended to read ‘Expecta me’, stressing the relations of the spouses.

The contrary scene, the departure of the deceased, is more rare. It required the fertile imagination of Etex to conceive for the tomb of Madame Raspail, who died while her husband was a political prisoner at Doullens, a monumental figure wholly covered by a shroud, with arm outstretched towards a barred window and the legend: ‘Farewell, 8 March 1853, 12.30 p.m. Doullens.’