The Argilliers Cemetery, By Maurice De Lambert (1873-1953)

Pencil on paper; signed, artist’s stamp in the lower right corner; view size 16 x 20.8 cm

Maurice Walter Edmond Labatt de Lambert (known as Maurice de Lambert) studied drawing under, among others, Gustave Moreau and Félix Bracquemond. He illustrated works by Victor Hugo (La Légende du Beau), Théophile Gautier (Le Chevalier double), and Guy de Maupassant (L’Inutile beauté). He also drew stage designs for Montmartre productions and portraits of actors for the magazine Le Théâtre (Sarah Bernhardt, Sacha Guitry, etc.).

The drawing presented here, likely a preparatory study for an engraving, depicts the Baron de Castille’s cemetery in Argilliers, in the Gard department. This cemetery, located in the grounds of the Château de Castille, consists of an entrance, a peristyle, and three columns supporting a crescent resting on a sphere. Built in 1816 to house the remains of Baron Gabriel de Froment (1747–1826), his wife, and their son Édouard, it no longer contains any graves today. It was restored in 2024 and 2025. The baron’s excessive fondness for columns (his castle is nicknamed the “Palace of a Thousand Columns”) may have stemmed from the many trips he took to admire the ruins of Paestum, Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli, or the Palladian villas in Veneto.