Up for auction a RARE! "French Architect" Henri Marchal Hand Written Letter Dated 1952.

ES-9810

Henri Marchal (June 24, 1876 –

April 10, 1970) was a French architect and civil servant. He devoted a great

part of his life to research on the art and archeology of Cambodia and the conservation and restoration of Khmer monuments at

the archeological site of Angkor, in Cambodia. Marchal was born

in Paris. After his baccalauréat in 1895, he was admitted to the École des beaux-arts,

section of Architecture, where he

attended the workshop led by Gaston Redon. He was appointed Inspector of civilian buildings

of Cambodia in 1905. In 1910 he gained the Khmer language license and was appointed assistant

curator of the Ecole française

d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO) Museum in Phnom Penh. In 1912 he was dispatched to Saigon, as Inspector of civilian buildings of Cochinchina. Following the death of Jean

Commaille (murdered by bandits while carrying the pay of

workers), in 1916 he was dispatched to Angkor to manage Conservation d'Angkor by

EFEO. He resumed the cleaning works on Angkor Wat and the excavation of main monuments in

central Angkor Thom: Baphuon, the Bayon, Phimeanakas, Preah Pithu, the Royal Palace ecc.). In 1919 Henri Marchal

was appointed permanent member of EFEO and "Curator of Angkor". Then

he began also excavation and cleaning of other monuments outside Angkor

Thom: Ta Prohm (in 1920), Preah Khan, Neak Pean, Phnom Bakheng (1922–29), Prasat Kravan (with Henri Parmentier and Victor

Goloubew) and Banteay Srei among others. In 1930 he went to Java to

learn the principles of anastylosis from the archeological

service of the Dutch East Indies, aware of the limits of the consolidation

methods used previously in Angkor. Upon his return, he decided to apply the method

of anastylosis for the first time in Angkor on the temple

of Banteay Srei. The

restoration was unanimously applauded as success. In 1933 he left the Conservation

d'Angkor office to replace Henri Parmentier as Chief of the archaeological service

of EFEO, but he reassumed the charge of Curator of Angkor from 1935 to 1937

(because of the tragic suicide of Georges

Trouvé) and again from 1947 (replacing Maurice Glaize) to 1953. At that time he was more than

seventy-five years old and in an interview on The New York Times[5] said «the work is getting too hard for me»!!! In

the meantime in 1938, on the way back to France, he visited India and Ceylon,

which he described in Souvenirs d'un Conservateur, and before

returning to Angkor he led an archeological mission at Arikamedu (called Virampatnam by the

French), in Puducherry. From 1948 to 1953 he directed

restoration works on the buildings located along the west roadway of Angkor

Wat, the Baphuon (1948), Banteay Kdei, Preah Khan and Thommanon (1950). From 1954 to 1957 he was appointed

technical advisor of historical monuments and Chief of Department of Public

Works of the newly formed Kingdom of Laos.

His love for Angkor and Khmer civilization is testified by his settling

in Siem Reap after his retirement, in 1957, until his death

in 1970. He died there, aged 93.