Ernest Cléret (1847-1932) The Mausoleum Of Jérôme Bignon

Ernest CLÉRET
(Fampoux 1847 – Paris 1932)
The mausoleum of Jérôme Bignon in the church of Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet in Paris
Watercolor and graphite on paper
H. 60 cm; W. 49 cm
Signed lower left, dated
Titled and located on the back

Provenance: Private collection, Dordogne

For once, it is not the work of a painter, but of an architect that we are presenting. Ernest Cléret, a student at the École des Beaux-Arts in the Paccard and André workshops in the early 1870s, would later have various responsibilities within the city of Paris and the State, concerning large buildings. Nevertheless, his skills as a draftsman, inherent in any good architect, sent him to teach drawing at the Manufacture nationale des Gobelins, a position for which he was awarded the Legion of Honor in 1919.

Our very large sheet, produced in 1873, when he was still a resident of the Beaux-Arts, represents the funeral monument of the Bignon family, erected in the Parisian church of Saint-Nicolas du Chardonnet. This sheet was commissioned three years earlier by a certain Charles Fabre. This mausoleum, partly produced by Michel Anguier, was also produced by François Girardon, two great names in French sculpture at the end of the 17th century. Changes were made to its composition in the 19th century, since it had been dismantled during the Revolution and clumsily reassembled in 1818.