PARMENTIER Henri (EN)
Biographical Article
Henri Parmentier spent his youth in Paris. After passing the baccalaureate in arts and sciences in 1888-1890, he entered the École des beaux-arts, in the architecturesection, in 1891. Assigned to the architecture department of Tunis, he made his start in archeology by surveying and restoring the temple of Saturn-Baal in Dougga (honourable mention at the Salon des artistes français, in 1896). He was appointed an architectural fellow at the nascent École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO) and soon landed in Indochina in November 1900, which became his second homeland. His first mission was to study and safeguard cam monuments, which were poorly understood at the time and were often confused with Khmer temples. After thorough scouting, he undertook, along with Charles Carpeaux (1870-1904), lengthy excavation campaigns on the sites of Mi Son in 1903-1904, Dong Duong, and Chanh Lô in 1905, and the restoration of the temples of Po Nagar in 1905 and Po Klong Garai in 1908. His studies and surveys of cam monuments were published in the Inventaire descriptif des monuments cam de l’Annam, whose first volume (the description of monuments) appeared in 1909 and whose second (the study of cam art) appeared in 1918. These earned him the Prix d'archéologie coloniale. In 1904, he was appointed head of the archaeological department of the EFEO and, together with Henri Dufour and Charles Carpeaux, organized an initial mission to Angkor. The three archaeologists carried out a complete survey of the Bayon bas-reliefs (ប្រាសាទបាយ័ន). In 1905, Henri Parmentier obtained the architectural degree of DPLG (Diplôme d'architecte diplômé par le gouvernement) by presenting a study on a type of habitat adapted to the climatic conditions of Tonkin. In November the same year, he worked on organising the conservation of Angkor and, in 1908, the installation of the collections of the EFEO museum in Hanoi. He drew up the plans for the cam art museum in Danang, which was completed in 1919 and expanded in 1936. On this occasion the museum was officially given the name of Musée Henri-Parmentier. In 1907, the school launched a working program on the Angkor site; Henri Parmentier set up a building conservation program. In 1911, the study of the temples of Sambor (Kompong Thom [កំពង់ធំ]), hitherto considered as cam, led him to define a new style of art: pre-Angkorian. He studied, among other things, the bas-reliefs of the great temple of Banteay Chmar (ប្រាសាទបន្ទាយឆ្មារ), the temples of Wat Phu (ວັດພູ) and Wat Nokor (វគ្តន ancient architecture), the bas-reliefs of ancient architecture reliefs of Bayon and, in collaboration with Louis Finot (1864-1935) and Victor Goloubew (1878-1945), in 1926, the temple of Banteay Srei (ប្រាសាទបន្ទាយស្). In 1932, he cleared the temple of Krol Romeas on Phnom Kulen (ភ្នំគូលេន). Reaching retirement age, but choosing to continue working for the EFEO, he was appointed honorary head of the Archaeological Service. In 1933, he decided to update the inventory of Indochinese monuments by Étienne Lunet de Lajonquière (1861-1933), but his health had been weakened by his many stays in the field and did not allow him to carry out this work. He then settled permanently in Cambodia and wrote a book on Hindu architectural art in India and the Far East. He devoted the last years of his life to completing a work on the art of Laos, but the looting of his library during the Japanese occupation deprived him of part of his documentation. He died on February 22, 1949 in Phnom Penh ភ្នំ(ពេញ).
The Collection
The collection consists of 4,272 stereoscopic images taken in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, China, and Tunisia between 1900 and 1949.
