A l'ombre d'Angkor | In the Shadow of Angkor

by George Groslier

An inspired and perceptive exploration of the remains of the Ancient Khmer civilization at the start of the colonial era.

Groslier Ombre Angkor

Type: paperback

Publisher: Augustin Challamel, Paris

Edition: Facsimile Gyan Books, New Delhi

Published: 1916

Author: George Groslier

Pages: 190

ISBN: 4444006601339

Language : French

ADB Library Catalog ID: HIS7/GRFR

These Notes et Impressions sur les temples inconnus de l’ancien Cambodge” (Kompong Cham, Vat Phu, Tonle Repou, Preah Vihear, Beng Maelea, Ta Prohm, Loley, Bakong, Bantei Chhmaar) were taken during the 1913 – 1914 mission that brought George Groslier from South Laos to the Tonle Sap lake and down the river to Phnom Penh.

In these often lyrical pages, the author, then traveling as a famed painter and budding archaeologist, expresses the profond impression Cambodia left on him when he was still a carefree author, to become later the founder of the Phnom Penh National Museum, burdened with responsibilities and a passionate promoter of Khmer culture.

Groslier itinerary 1916

Groslier’s Itinerary, April 1913-January 1914.

Tags: French explorers, art, Banteay Chhmar, Beng Mealea Temple, Angkor Wat, Wat Phu

About the Author

George Groslier

George Groslier

George Groslier (4 Feb. 1887, Phnom Penh-16 June 1945, Phnom Penh), the first child with French citizenship born in modern Cambodia, artist, novelist, historian, archaeologist, ethnologist, architect, photographer, founder and curator of the National Museum of Cambodia, was the ultimate Cambodian scholar”.

While organizing the School of Cambodian Arts (nowadays the Royal University of Fine Arts) in the 1920s, he has extensively portrayed and studied the country, its people and its traditions, in his writings, paintings and erudite communications. He founded the Phnom Penh Albert Sarraut Museum in 1919, later to become the Cambodia National Museum. Groslier’s wife, Suzanne Poujade (18931970), was a niece of Albert Sarraut, former Governor-General of Indochina and then French Minister of the Colonies and future Prime Minister.

George Groslier died prisoner in a Japanese concentration camp when Japan — although formerly an ally of Petain’s French government — occupied vast swaths of South East Asia. With Suzanne Poujade, he had three children, Nicole, Gilbert and Bernard-Philippe, the latter following his father’s steps and becoming an eminent researcher in Cambodian archaeology and history.

Four of his major books — Cambodian Dancers, Ancient & Modern; In the Shadow of Angkor, Unknown Temples of Ancient Cambodia; Return to Clay, A Romance of Cambodia and Road of the Strong, A Romance of Cambodia – have been translated into English and published by DatAsia Press.

Read here about the Rue Groslier (Groslier Street) in Phnom Penh (access to National Museum).

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George Groslier portrayed in 1913 in the French journal Femina.
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Suzanne Poujade and two of the Grosliers’ three children in the 1920s (EFEO)
Groslier 1922 silice 1
George Groslier with daughter Nicole and Suzanne Poujade, far right, arrive at the Phnom Penh Museum for the 1922 visit of Maréchal Lyautey. Standing on the left side, André Silice and Jean Stoeckel, Groslier’s collaborators [photo courtesy of Kent Davis].