He built up the most renowned of French travelling menageries, “Pezon et ses lions” — Pezon and his lions — with its wheeled cages and its parades. His act consisted of riding the lion Brutus like a mount; the statue that tops his tomb reproduces the scene, the man seated on the beast, without a line of explanation.
The story
Born in 1827 at Rimeize, in the Lozère, Jean-Baptiste Pezon belonged to a family that would make the menagerie a hereditary trade — the Pezons travelled the roads for three generations. The wild-beast show was then one of the great attractions of the fairs: people did not go to the zoo, they waited for the menagerie to come through. The tamer played the part of the popular hero there, somewhere between the acrobat and the matador, and the crowd came as much for the risk as for the animals.
Pezon built up a travelling menagerie that became the most renowned in France, present at the great fairs — the foire du Trône in Paris, those of the provincial towns — with its rolling cages, its garish posters and its parades; his big cats wintered at Montreuil, in the rue Gutenberg. The name became a sign: “Pezon et ses lions”. Under the Second Empire and then the Third Republic he was a popular celebrity in the full sense — known to people who could not read.
His lion Brutus was the star of the troupe, and the act consisted in riding him like a horse: the animal had to be shown subdued, and the crowd came for the moment when he would not be. Brutus did more than fill the fairgrounds — it was from looking at him that Bartholdi conceived the Lion of Belfort, raised in 1880 at the foot of the citadel.
He died in 1897, at seventy, of a heart attack at the Montmartre fair — on the fairground, as he had lived. His grave, in Division 86, plays the act again: Prosper Lecourtier, a pupil of Frémiet, cast in bronze in 1885 the lion lying down and the man seated on him, in the exact posture of the parade. The statue stands high so as to be seen from a distance, like a circus poster.
On site, do not miss
One of the most recognisable monuments in the cemetery: a statue of the tamer astride his lion Brutus. Few tombs show the dead man's trade with such literalness.
Visitors' questions
Where is Jean-Baptiste Pezon's grave?
In Division 86 of Père-Lachaise, and you cannot miss it: a bronze shows him astride his lion Brutus, the work of the animal sculptor Prosper Lecourtier. Pezon had the tomb raised in 1885, twelve years before he died: he chose for himself the image that would outlast him.
Pierre HaïkWho was Brutus?
The star lion of his menagerie, which he rode like a horse in front of the fairground crowds. The act was as much a display of mastery as a turn: what the crowd was waiting for was the moment the animal stopped obeying.
Antonio FranconiWhat was a travelling menagerie?
The ancestor of the zoo, on wheels: rolling cages that went from fair to fair — the foire du Trône in Paris, the fairs of the provincial towns. You did not go to see the big cats, you waited for them to come to you.
Nicolas KerWas he famous in his lifetime?
Very: under the Second Empire and then the Third Republic, “Pezon et ses lions” was a name known to people who could not read, and the cheap prints of the day carried his silhouette astride Brutus.
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