Tombe de Jules Dalou
Jules Dalou (1838 - 1902)
Jules Dalou was a sculptor and a Communard
His only work in the Montparnasse cemetery is on the tomb of Charles Robert. Here, the tomb is of great simplicity.
Jules Dalou was born in Paris in 1838. He became a pupil of the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, who passed on to him the concern for truth and naturalness that opposed academic art at the time. An honest and proud man, Jules Dalou never made concessions in his art, even though he was able to adapt to private and public commissions.
During the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune, he was an officer in the 83rd Federated Battalion.
Jules Dalou in his studio, 1899
Jules Dalou, Funeral monument to Victor Noir
Wikimedia (Dobros)
Jules Dalou, Funeral monument to Auguste Blanqui in Père-Lachaise
Wikimedia (Jean-Pierre Beaudouin)
From his humble origins, Dalou retained a fervent republican feeling throughout his life. He saw himself as a worker, a child of the people of Paris, whose values he fiercely defended.
In 1871, Dalou sided with the Communards and became a member of the Federation of Artists founded by Gustave Courbet.
With the fall of the Commune in May 1871 and the harsh repression meted out to the Communards, Dalou's situation was compromised. In July 1871, the sculptor opted for exile and left for London with his wife and four-year-old daughter Georgette.
Dalou drew for illustrated newspapers and produced the terracottas that made his reputation in England. His influence was decisive with the British sculptors of the New Sculpture movement.
On 1 May 1874, the 3rd Council of War sentenced Dalou in absentia to forced labour for life.
Having refused to ask for a pardon, he obtained a remission of sentence in May 1879. Dalou and his family then returned from exile.
He then competed for a project, a monumental statue on the Place de la République. Dalou, a former Communard, did not meet the required criteria. He did, however, sculpt the bas-reliefs devoted to the revolutionary events of 1789 to 1880.
However, his group "Le Triomphe de la République" (The Triumph of the Republic) was noticed by the public and commissioned by the municipality to be erected on the Place de la Nation. Dalou spent 20 years creating his "Republic on the march", which was inaugurated at a ceremony in 1899 by President Sadi Carnot.
Dalou died in 1902, without having had time to complete his last major project, a Monument aux Travailleurs (or Monument to the Workers) intended to be 32 metres high.
He was buried very modestly, in accordance with his wishes. He left everything he owned to the Orphelinat des Arts, in Courbevoie, to care for his disabled daughter, who died in 1915.
