Now unto the actual monument itself. According to Ruth Cowen's book "Relish" about Alexis Soyer, he had bought a plot at Kensal Green for £ 73.
And Alexis started to sketch his ideas for a monument. In the book Memoirs of Soyer the authors describe it (somewhat empurpled) like this:
Here is another contemporary report about the tomb:
And here we have the error I mentioned before. Francois Simonau was not Emma's father-in-law but her stepfather. He was, however, the father-in-law of Alexis Soyer. The sculptor's name is given in both accounts above as Puyenbroach. And I have wondered what the "M" stands for? For his first name? For mister? (but isn't that "Mr." usually?) My best guess is that it stands for "monsieur". I could not find a sculptor with that name and I finally found out that the man responsible for the execution of the work is a Pierre Puyenbroeck (1804-1884). I wonder if "Puyenbroach" is an anglicised version of his name? The texts describe the statue as an allegory of Faith, even saying that it has "the attributes of her office". Faith is one of the three theological virtues, the other two being Hope and Charity. The website of the Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery identifies the statue as Hope. Yet all other sources say that it shows an allegory of Faith. I would agree with the latter because I have found that the attribute of Faith is a cross and the attribute of Hope is an anchor, sometimes in the form on an anchored cross. The cross the figure was holding is now gone but can be seen in the drawing above. It seems other things are gone now as well as the following listing text from the website British Listed Buildings shows (btw ... the TO HER letters are by now back in place!)
"Listing Text
249/80/64 HARROW ROAD W10
07-NOV-84 KENSAL GREEN CEMETERY
Tomb of Elizabeth and Alexis Soyer
(Formerly listed as:
HARROW ROAD W10
KENSAL GREEN CEMETERY
Tomb of Francois Simonau)
GV II*
Pedestal tomb of Elizabeth Soyer.1844. Designed by Alexis Soyer, carved by Pierre Puyenbroeck of Brussels. Elizabeth Soyer was a popular painter who miscarried and died in 1842, aged 29. Her husband Alexis Soyer (who designed this monument to his wife and is himself also buried here) was the leading chef and dietician of the mid-19th century, responsible also for reforming army catering in the Crimea. Elizabeth's step-father Francois Simoneau, who died in 1859, is also a figure of interest, known as the `Flemish Murillo'. This monument in Portland stone and marble, was designed by Elizabeth Soyer's husband Alexis Soyer and carved by Pierre Puyenbroeck of Brussels in 1844. The base was formerly inscribed in large bronze letters TO HER and the evidence for this can still be seen. The middle section consists of a marble portrait relief of Madame Soyer in the style of Van Dyck. An easel and brushes are suspended below and still bear extensive remains of paint which originally decorated this monument. The rear of the middle section contains a recess which formerly housed her easel behind glass, together with a wreath presented by Mlle Cerito, an opera singer. The top section consists of a standing female draped figure of Faith, originally illuminated by a jet of gas light. The bronze gas nozzle is still in situ to testify to this.
See Illustrated London News, 7th September 1844, p.160.
Listing NGR: TQ2334582661
This text is from the original listing, and may not necessarily reflect the current setting of the building."
source: British Listed Buildings
Here we can see the wonderful railings which are also long gone. And as usual sources cannot agree about these railings. (why am I not surprised?) On the Facebook page of the Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery they recently said this:
cast-iron railings!
Ruth Cowen in her book "Relish" writes that Alexis Soyer employed William Rogers, a wood carver, to design the railings and she describes them as
"a great swirling mass of branches, with the word "Soyer" etched into the thickest bough"
(sounds as if she describes wood work) And in the same book she writes:
"But the gold cross that Faith clasped (...) has long gone, along with the famously expensive carved wooden railings, which now exist only on paper plans housed in the Victoria and Albert museum."Wood!
And in the book "Portrait of a Chef" by Helen Soutar Morris I read this:
"¹ This wooden railing decayed, and was removed about 1930"Again, much confusion. Having read this about William Gibbs Rogers I am inclined to think it was actually made of wood. If so ~ bad idea, really. After two years (and another £ 46 which Alexis had to pay for the 2 adjacent plots) the memorial for Emma Soyer was finally ready and understandably became talk of the town. In September 1844 was the inauguration ceremony for the monument and Alexis was accompanied, amongst many friends, by the aformentioned Mdlle. Cerrito (see clipping above). Fanny Cerrito was a ballet dancer and she was Alexis' new crush! As mentioned above she laid down a wreath, made from a crown of laurels which had been placed on her head by an Austrian Archduke on the stage of La Scala. (Fanny ended up marrying another guy but their marriage was not a happy one) This wreath, together with Emma's palette was placed in the recess on the rear side of the monument and put behind glass.
Again I would give quite something to have seen it back in the day!
By the way ~ the inscription "England Gave Her Birth, Genius Immortality" was added 12 years later to avoid people to think she was a foreigner, hmm. I assume "To the Memory of" was also added then because of the same font.
So Faith's cross is gone, as are the palette/brushes of Emma, and Fanny's wreath and the railings. And alas! no gaslight flickering anymore. But the sight of the monument had been much sadder before it was restored in and re-dedicated on March the 30th, 2009.
Faith was not only lacking her cross but also her right arm.
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| source: Find A Grave |
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| source: Find A Grave |
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| source: Find A Grave |
The Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery are currently updating their website. Which meant for me that a link which I had saved on August 5th is now no longer working. Thankfully I could open a cached version of it and made a screenshot which I insert here:
Here you can see that they identify the statue as an allegory of Hope. And the click here in this text was the wrong link I mentioned in my "part 1" post. Sadly it did not lead to more info about the Soyers and their monument but instead to a pdf file about the restored grave of FIREMAN FREDERICK DAVIES GC.
So far the new and updated version of their website is still in the making and many "read more" links are still empty but i am sure with time they will fill in the missing parts. Make sure to visit their website (the typo in Cemetery is by now corrected!)
So all the missing things aside, a totally splendid job had been done in cleaning and restoring this wonderful monument!
Here is a report about the conservation work done on the monument
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| source: FB page of The Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery |
I have tried to make sure not to violate any copyright, have tried to name all my sources and link to the respective websites.
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