Category: Haunting Graveyards

Postcard from London, England: Who lies amongst the trees of Kensal Green?

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A vintage postage stamp featuring an illustration related to Charles Dickens, depicting a scene with children and a caregiver, and text indicating his lifespan (1812/1870) and name.

Above: A field in Kensal Green Cemetery, 2023.

The memories which peaceful country scenes call up, are not of this world, nor of its thoughts and hopes. Their gentle influence may teach us how to weave fresh garlands for the graves of those we loved: may purify our thoughts, and bear down before it old enmity and hatred….”

Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens (1812-1870), 1838

Wandering amongst the quarter-million souls resting amongst the bucolic 72 acres of The General Cemetery of All Souls, Kensal Green, you absorb a sense of peace from the surroundings. Inspired by Pere Lachaise in Paris, the design incorporates multiple broad pathways and lush landscaping. Opened in 1833, this privately run graveyard was once the fashionable spot to be buried – some 650 titled nobles rest there.

Every direction we looked, there were headstones for those of note and those of more humble backgrounds. But all with stories. I longed to read them all, to grasp snippets of the lives they led. Given their age, many of their resting places are unapproachable, dangerously sunken or knocked out of kilter by the roots of the trees that shade them. Taphophile, yes, but I have no desire to plunge down into a grave, forced to embrace its skeletal contents.

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Postcard from France: Saint Phalle battled outside wrongs and monsters within

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A colorful 1992 French stamp featuring a stylized figure by Niki de Saint Phalle, surrounded by stars and a crescent moon.

Above: Detail of “Monster Crocodile,” a 1964 assemblage by Niki de Saint Phalle.

I wanted [the fountain] to have charm, with the colors of Niki…. I wanted sculptures like street performers, a little bit like a circus, which was at the heart of Stravinsky’s style itself when in 1914 he had his first encounter with jazz….”

Jean Tinguely (1925-1991)

With bright primary colors twirling around squirting water in all different directions, the 1983 “Stravinsky Fountain” by Niki de Saint Phalle and husband Jean Tinguely ignited a public space between the Pompidou Center, housing the National Museum of Modern Art, and the Gothic-style Church of Saint-Merri. Viewing the flamboyant fountain evokes a childlike joyful feeling in even the most jaded adults.

Above: “Stravinsky Fountain,” Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely, Paris, France, 1983.

That whimsical, playful exuberance bubbling up in the fountain and her jubilant plump “Nanas,” with figures resembling my own, meant I failed to take a serious look at her art. I must have been in a teenage trance to miss the media coverage when she exhibited a giant Nana “Hon” with an entryway for attendees between her widespread legs.

Underestimating Saint Phalle’s talents for decades was a mistake. An exhibition this spring at the Caumont Center for Art in Aix-en-Provence altered my misconceptions.

A quotation by Niki de Saint Phalle in French and English, expressing her love for monsters, displayed in a colorful and artistic font.
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Postcard from Provence, France: Monumental cemeteries where Impressionists rest

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Blue postage stamp featuring a scenic view of Nice, France, with trees and hills, inscribed with 'République Française' and 'CFA'.

Above: Monument in Cimitiere du Chateau, Nice, France

A military citadel once crowned a hill overlooking the Bay of Nice. Bearing in mind that Nice did not become a permanent part of France until 1860, as part of one of the many wars fought during his reign, King Louis XIV (1638-1715) of France ordered the castle-fortress destroyed in 1706.

A portion of the grounds of the old citadel were opened as Cimetiere du Chateau in 1783. Instead of sentinels, monuments in the cemetery now occupy the most prominent vantage points for viewing the bay and surrounding countryside.

The cemetery* is an open space among the ruins, covered in winter with violets and daisies. It might make one in love with death, to think that one should be buried in so sweet a place.”

Preface to Adonais, Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1821

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