Jacob Roblès, a merchant born in Port-au-Prince into a Jewish family from Bordeaux, is said to have met Auguste Préault through Lamartine, and that is where the rest comes from. At his death, in 1842, his heirs bought the plot without delay and commissioned the sculptor. The result would be Silence, a veiled figure laying a finger on its lips, today one of the most copied images in funerary art.
The story
Jacob Roblès was born on 13 April 1782 at Port-au-Prince, into a Bordeaux Jewish family settled in the West Indies. A merchant, he lived and worked in Paris, and married Sara Popotte Moralis.
He is said to have met the sculptor Auguste Préault through Lamartine — the meeting settles everything that follows.
He died in the rue d'Helder on 10 March 1842. His heirs bought the ground on the very day of his death, and commissioned the monument from Préault.
Préault delivered “Le Silence”: a marble medallion set into a hollow, in which a veiled figure, one finger to its lips, imposes silence on the visitor. The work has become one of the most reproduced in French funerary sculpture, often without anyone knowing whose grave it is.
A bas-relief completes it: two doves drinking from a cup inside a garland. Three words of Hebrew are cut into the stone — “hide nothing”. The City of Paris maintains the monument.
The grave
The grave, ringed by a metal railing, bears one of the most famous sculptures in the cemetery: “Silence”, a marble medallion in a concave field signed Auguste Préault — a veiled figure, a finger on its lips. The work is reproduced everywhere, often without anyone knowing whose grave it is. A bas-relief adds two doves drinking from a cup within a garland, and the inscription is in Hebrew: three words translated as “hide nothing”. The plot was bought by the heirs on the very day of his death, 10 March 1842, and the monument is maintained by the City of Paris.
On site, do not miss
The finger on the lips of “Silence”, then the two doves of the bas-relief and the Hebrew characters.
Visitors' questions
Where is Jacob Roblès's grave?
In Division 7, avenue Rachel, seventh row, in the lower part of the cemetery — the Division of Rachel, Camille Pissarro and the Rothschild chapel. A metal railing surrounds the grave.
RachelWhat is Préault's “Silence”?
The marble medallion that adorns his grave: a veiled figure, one finger to its lips, commanding the visitor to hold his tongue. It is one of the most widely reproduced pieces of French funerary sculpture — often by people who have no idea whose grave it is.
Georges RodenbachWho was Jacob Roblès?
A merchant born in 1782 in Port-au-Prince, into a Jewish family from Bordeaux settled in the West Indies. He is thought to have met the sculptor Préault through Lamartine, which would explain the presence of this work on his grave.
James de RothschildWhat is carved in Hebrew?
Three words usually translated as “hide nothing”. A bas-relief completes the whole: two doves drinking from a cup, within a garland. The monument is maintained by the City of Paris.
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