Adolphe GIRALDON
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Painter, illustrator and decorator.
Adolphe Giraldon, born in Marseille in 1855, carried on painting, illustration and decoration all at once, three trades then held to be one. He worked with Luc-Olivier Merson, who signed the mosaics of the Sacré-Cœur, and designed bindings for series publishing, when the mass-produced book still bore an artist's gilt tooling. His stone gives neither dates nor profession, only his name and those who paid for it: “ses élèves, ses amis”.
The story
The inscription gives neither dates nor trade: it names the donors. “A Adolphe GIRALDON, ses élèves, ses amis.” The formula recurs on several graves in the cemetery — Dulong, Lefébure-Wély, Danbé, Saint-Victor — and always says the same thing: these dead had no fortune, but they had pupils.
Born in Marseille in 1855, Adolphe Paul Giraldon was the pupil, the collaborator and the friend of Luc-Olivier Merson, who made the mosaics of the Sacré-Cœur. A painter, an illustrator and a decorator — three trades the generation of 1900 held to be one —, he designed a great many bindings for industrial publishing: applied art for the mass-produced book, at a time when publishers dressed their volumes in gilt tooling drawn by artists.
He died in 1933, at seventy-eight. His stone in Division 63 nowhere says that he taught: it lets it be understood by naming those who paid for it.
The grave
An inscription that is a dedication, and nothing else: “A Adolphe GIRALDON, ses élèves, ses amis.” — to Adolphe Giraldon, his pupils, his friends. No dates, no profession, no distinction — only the name of the man honoured and the mention of those who paid. The formula recurs on several graves in the cemetery — Dulong, Lefébure-Wély, Danbé, Saint-Victor — and always says the same thing: these dead had no fortune, but they had pupils.
On site, do not miss
The inscription gives neither dates nor profession: it names the donors. “A Adolphe GIRALDON, ses élèves, ses amis” — to Adolphe Giraldon, his pupils, his friends.
Visitors' questions
Where is Adolphe Giraldon's grave?
In Division 63 of Père-Lachaise. The inscription gives neither dates nor trade: it is a dedication — “A Adolphe GIRALDON, ses élèves, ses amis”, from his pupils and his friends. He died in 1933, at seventy-eight.
Ferdinand DestouchesWhat was Luc-Olivier Merson to him?
His master, his collaborator and his friend — the painter of the mosaics of the Sacré-Cœur. Giraldon was his pupil first, then worked alongside him, and went on to train pupils of his own.
Guillaume DubufeWhat is an industrial binding?
The mass-market book dressed in gilt tooling, in a trade that produced in bulk and still cared how it looked. Giraldon designed the decoration — applied art at its most commercial and its most careful.
Jean Noël MonrocqWho paid for his monument?
“Ses élèves, ses amis”, says the inscription — his pupils, his friends. The formula comes back on several graves in the cemetery — Dulong, Lefébure-Wély, Danbé — and always says the same thing: the dead man had no money.
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