40 Facts About George Groslier

George Groslier then returned to Cambodia, traveling the length and breadth of the country to examine its ancient monuments and architecture.

In June 1914, Groslier enlisted in the French army and was employed as a balloonist in the early part of World War I It was during this time that he met and married sportswoman Suzanne Cecile Poujade; they eventually had three children.

George Groslier was ultimately reassigned to French Indochina because of his knowledge of the Khmer language.

From 1917 to his retirement in 1942, George Groslier changed the focus of his work from that of merely describing Cambodian culture for a European audience to what he called a "rescue mission" to save the indigenous national art forms of Cambodia from destruction.

At the art school, George Groslier did not try to make the native culture adapt to that of the colonizing power; on the contrary, he insisted that the school be run by Cambodians for Cambodians and that no European influence be allowed.

George Groslier was intolerant of any attempts by Europeans to loot or damage native art.

On June 18,1945, in Phnom Penh, while imprisoned by the Kempeitai, George Groslier died under torture.

George Groslier was later officially recognized as Mort pour la France.

On February 4,1887, a son, George Groslier, was born to the couple.

George Groslier gave birth to a daughter, who immediately died, so Angelina decided to return to her family home in France to protect two-year-old George from the harsh climate and dangers of colonial life.

George Groslier began his education in Marseilles and discovered his talents for writing and painting.

George Groslier grew up with an awareness of and interest in the land in which he had been born, but no great desire to return there.

In 1904, at the age of 17, George Groslier published his first book, a self-published poetry collection entitled La Chanson d'un Jeune.

In 1910, the Ministry of Public Education, whose head, Albert Sarraut, the future Prime Minister of France, would become his lifelong mentor and friend, commissioned George Groslier to carry out an educational assignment in Cambodia.

George Groslier assembled hundreds of original sketches, numerous paintings and detailed written information, which he brought back with him to France.

George Groslier traveled on his own, isolated in remote jungles, rivers and mountains in primitive and demanding conditions, assisted only by native helpers.

George Groslier published his experiences in his second book, A l'ombre d 'Angkor; notes et impressions sur les temples inconnus de l'ancien Cambodge, penning lively accounts that blended his subjective impressions with objective details.

In June 1914, George Groslier returned to France to enlist in the French army; the war began only weeks later.

In 1915, George Groslier was assigned to serve as a balloonist at Versailles Aerostation.

George Groslier spent the winter on the Eastern Front working as a courier.

Albert Sarraut was then charged with assembling an Air Force team in the Far East and, knowing George Groslier was familiar with Cambodia and was fluent in the Khmer language, Sarraut had him reassigned to this mission in April 1917.

George Groslier charged him with two new missions: to found a museum of Cambodian art and to organize a school of Cambodian arts.

Those arts he had only years ago described as 'immortal' now seemed to George Groslier to be on the verge of vanishing.

George Groslier proved brilliant at the public relations challenge of rallying French colonial public opinion to the cause of saving Cambodian art.

George Groslier drafted the architectural plans for the Museum of Cambodia, known from 1920 as the Albert Sarraut Museum, which opened its doors to the public during the Cambodia New Year on April 13,1920.

George Groslier went on to organize the guilds to produce and sell Cambodian art through a worldwide network, enabling artists to gain an income and self-sufficiency.

George Groslier encouraged them to produce reproductions of traditional Khmer masterpieces as a way of satisfying foreign tourists' hunger for souvenirs, and thus discourage the foreigners from stealing the original artworks of the country.

George Groslier's approach was exactly the opposite of that of the founders of another Indochinese institution, the Hanoi-based School of Fine Arts of Indochina, which sought to train Asian students in Western modes of art, rather than native styles.

In 1923, George Groslier proved his commitment to preserving Cambodia's heritage when he organized the arrest of Andre Malraux, the future novelist and French Minister of Cultural Affairs.

George Groslier, who had been tipped off, reached Kampong Chnang by car just as Malraux' boat arrived, went on board, identified the devata, and arranged for the police to arrest the perpetrators as soon as they arrived at Phnom Penh that evening.

George Groslier was a very prolific writer throughout his career, but the period between the mid-1920s through the early-1930s was particularly productive for him.

Four days later, George Groslier began a solitary journey from Phnom Penh via the Mekong River, ostensibly to inspect pagodas along his route, but actually to record, for a literary work, his impressions of the river, its wildlife and the people along its banks.

George Groslier played a major role in preparing the Cambodian exhibitions for the Colonial Exposition that opened in Vincennes, just outside Paris, on May 6,1931.

Suzanne George Groslier's notes confirm that preparations for the exhibition began a year in advance of the official opening, so that the Cambodian exhibition was ready before those of any of the other participants.

Suzanne Poujade, George Groslier's wife, was born in Paris in 1893.

The last child, Bernard-Philippe George Groslier, would follow in his father's footsteps and become a renowned archaeologist and curator of the National Museum of Cambodia.

Since at least the 1930s, George Groslier had been a passionate shortwave radio enthusiast.

Eyewitnesses in the camp report that the Japanese military police, the Kempeitai, interrogated George Groslier, tortured him, and returned him to his cell dead or dying on the morning of June 18,1945.

On October 4,1946, Governor Penn Nouth of Phnom Penh honored George Groslier by inaugurating rue George Groslier in front of the National Museum, saying.

Davis quotes historian Joel Montague as saying that George Groslier was "a bit of an oddity" in that he won his awards not over a short span of time, but throughout his life, from his teens to his fifties, as well as in the fact that he was given them for widely divergent activities and services: for painting, for writing, for museum work, for charity, and from the governments of France, Cambodia, Laos and Annam.