Donatella Jacopozzi: a life spent keeping her father's memory
Born in 1921, Donatella Jacopozzi was eleven when her father died. For the rest of her life she preserved his archives, told his story, and waited for the world to recognise what he had accomplished.
Donatella Jacopozzi was born on 22 October 1921 in Paris. She is Fernand’s only child. She is ten when her father receives the Légion d’honneur, eleven when he dies.
An unexpected inheritance
Fernand Jacopozzi leaves no fortune. He leaves boxes of archives: contracts, photographs, sketches, correspondence. Traces of a life devoted to illuminating Paris, without ever finding time to document it for posterity.
Donatella sorts them, organises them, keeps them safe. Through successive apartments in Paris and then Rome, the boxes travel with her.
Telling the story, again and again
For decades, no one asks. The rare journalists who take an interest in the Eiffel Tower or the Christmas illuminations ignore the name of their inventor.
When someone finally asks the question, Donatella answers. She tells of the bateau-mouche on 4 July 1925. She tells of the Christmases at the Magasins du Louvre. She tells of the Faux Paris, about which her father told her almost nothing.
The transmission
At her death, her archives pass to her daughter Véronique — Fernand’s granddaughter. It is Véronique who decided, with her son Brice, to create this site.
“My father lit up the world so that others might see more beauty.” — Donatella Jacopozzi