"La Vierge aux anges" (also known as The Song of the Angels) is a masterpiece by the French painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau. In the delicate faces of the three angels and the Madonna, one can discern the features of the painter's favorite model, Marie-Nelly Monchablon, who later became his first wife.
The painting was first presented at the Salon of 1881 and later became part of the collection of John Wanamaker, the founder of one of America's most prestigious department stores, "The Grand Depot" Wanamaker's in Philadelphia.
In 1940, "La Vierge aux anges" was purchased by Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks & Mortuaries, the large Californian company that manages monumental cemeteries in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside counties. The work was then placed in the Forest Lawn Museum in Glendale, where it is now displayed in a fine Gothic-style wooden altar structure.
The history of Forest Lawn, renowned for the many celebrities it hosts, deserves special mention. The initiative was taken by a group of entrepreneurs captivated by the ideas of Hubert Lewright Eaton, who in 1917 conceived the "memorial-park" as an ideal "locus amoenus," where the spirits of the living and the dead could unite, comforted by an eternal climate of joy, light, and beauty.
It is not uncommon to find Forest Lawn at the center of a wedding celebration: since 1929, more than 35,000 couples have been married in the enchanting medieval-style setting of the memorial parks. Among the most famous names are Ronald Reagan and his first wife, actress Jane Wyman, who were married on January 26, 1940.
