browse tags

Edme Casimir Croizier (de)

Portrait of Edme Casimir  Croizier (de)

Count (and Marquess) Edmé Casimir Baudier de Croizier (10 Nov. 1848, Paris — 21 June 1921, Bayonne, France) was a French traveler, diplomat, minister and writer who, thanks to his friendship with Louis Delaporte, attempted to establish the first detailed catalog of the artworks brought from Cambodia by the latter in the 1860s-1880s on Khmer art and monuments. In spite of its limitation, it is possible to say that L’Art khmer was the first French published attempt at a comprehensive study on Khmer art.

Often described as a ​“French explorer”, we only know of one extended travel he overtook to southern Russia, Crimea, the Caucasus and Turkestan in 1888. He served in the defence of Paris against the Prussian armies in 1870 – 1871, then represented Greece in Paris. 

De Croizier founded and presided the Société académique indo-chinoise de France on 29 Oct. 1877, an association of French scholars, officers, missionaries and Orientalists of the time such as Pau| Leroy-Beaulieu, Jean Dupuis, Émile Guimet, d’Hervey de Saint-Denys, H. Houssaye, Abel des Michels, and with Léon Féer, librarian in charge of the manuscripts at Bibliothèque nationale de France.

A fervent Catholic, he lauded the role of the Missions étrangères for their pioneer field work in Indo-China, and as the editor of the Mémoires de la Société académique indo-chinoise de France (1st volume issued in 1878 – 1879) promoted Abbé Bouillevaux​’s writings on Cambodia and Siam. 

In 1875, de Croizier established the first catalog of plaster casts, statues and photographs from Angkor brought back by Louis Delaporte and Lucien Fournereau. His own collection was later donated to the Paris National Library, the Trocadéro Museum, and the Foreign Ministry. 

Croizier Lart khmer etude historique catalogue 1875 mort roi singe
“La mort du Roi des SInges, bas-relief des galeries d’Angkor Wat” [‘Death of the Monkey-King, Angkor Bas-Relief’], photograph of a plaster cast in L’Art Khmer.

Publications

  • La Perse et les Persans, 1873.
  • L’Art khmer, étude historique sur les monuments de l’ancien Cambodge, avec un aperçu sur l’architecture khmer et une liste complète des monuments explorés suivi d’un catalogue raisonné du Musée khmer de Compiègne. Paris, E. Leroux, in‑8, 1875.
  • “Trois légendes cambodgiennes relatives aux monuments de pierre du Musée khmer de Compiègne” (L’Artiste, 2e vol., p. 105, 1875).
  • Les explorateurs du Cambodge, Paris, Aug. Challamel, Annales de l’Extreme-Orient, t. I, p. 57, 1878.
  • Indo-Chine. Etudes d’après les voyages du docteur Bastian, Annales d’Extrême-Orient, 1878, t I..
  • Les monuments de l’ancien Cambodge classés par provinces. Paris, E. Leroux et A. Challamel, Mémoires de la Société académique indo-chinoise de France, t. I. p. 273, 1878.
  • Histoire de l’architecture cambodgienne, d’après M. James Fergusson, [translation of History of architecture in all countries, t. II, London, in‑8, 1867], Mémoires de la Société académique indo-chinoise de France, t. I, p. 85, 1878.
  • Contributions à la Bibliographie indochinoise pour l’année 1883, Paris, Challamel, Chaix, E. Leroux, 1884.
  • Notice sur les manuscrits siamois de la Bibliothèque nationale, Paris, E. Leroux, 1887.
  • Les Monuments de Samarkand de l’époque des Timourides, 1891.

Photo: De Croizier’s letter, 1889.