Edmond François Paul Pottier (13 August 1855, Saarbrücken – 4 July 1934, Paris) was an art historian and archaeologist who was instrumental in establishing the

Corpus vasorum antiquorum Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum ("corpus of ancient vases"; abbreviated CVA) is an international research project for documentation of ancient ceramics. Its original ideal target content: any ceramic from any ancient location during any archaeological ...

. He was a pioneering scholar in the study of

Ancient Greek pottery Ancient Greek pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it (over 100,000 painted vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum), it has exe ...

. He was born in Saarbrücken, Rhineland, the son of a civil engineer he won a place at the

Lycée Condorcet The Lycée Condorcet () is a school founded in 1803 in Paris, France, located at 8, rue du Havre, in the city's 9th arrondissement. It is one of the four oldest high schools in Paris and also one of the most prestigious. Since its inception, var ...

and went on to study at the

École Normale Supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, S ...

and the École d'Athènes, his thesis was on the subject of the chronology of Athenian archons. It was during his tenure as a curator at the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

that he organised the first meeting of the

Union Académique Internationale The Union Académique Internationale (UAI)—in English, International Union of Academies—is a federation of many national academies and international academies from more than 60 countries all over the world which works in the field of Humaniti ...

aimed at establishing the complete corpus of

Greek vase Ancient Greek pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it (over 100,000 painted vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum), it has exe ...

s held in the national collections of every nation in 1919, the ''

''. He produced the first fascicule for the Louvre in 1922. Under the pseudonym Jacques Morel his wife was a writer who won the 1912

Prix Femina The Prix Femina is a French literary prize created in 1904 by 22 writers for the magazine '' La Vie heureuse'' (today known as '' Femina''). The prize is decided each year by an exclusively female jury. They reward French-language works writte ...

with the book ''Feuilles mortes''.

Published works

In 1908 his book on the vase painter Douris, ''Douris et les peintres des vases grecs'', was translated into English and published as "Douris and the painters of Greek vases". Other noteworthy works by Pottier include: * ''Étude sur les lécythes blancs attiques à représentations funéraires'', 1883 – Study on the white

lekythoi A lekythos (plural lekythoi) is a type of ancient Greek vessel used for storing oil (Greek λήκυθος), especially olive oil. It has a narrow body and one handle attached to the neck of the vessel, and is thus a narrow type of jug, with no po ...

Attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean S ...

. * ''La nécropole de Myrina: recherches archéologiques exécutées au nom et aux frais de l'École française d'Athènes'', 1887 (with

Salomon Reinach Salomon Reinach (29 August 1858 – 4 November 1932) was a French archaeologist, religious historian and was a major figure in the Franco-Jewish establishment in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He was vice president of the mo ...

; A. Veyries; École française d'Athènes) – The necropolis at Myrina: archaeological research performed on behalf of the French School of Athens. * ''Les Statuettes de terre cuite dans l'antiquité'', 1890 –

Terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

statuettes of ancient times. * ''Vases antiques du Louvre'', 2 volumes, 1897-1901 – Antique vases of the Louvre. * ''Diphilos et les modeleurs de terres cuites grecques'', 1908 – Diphilos and Greek terracotta modelers. * ''Le dessin chez les grecs d'après les vases peints'', 1926 – Greek design in regards to its painted vases. * ''L'art hittite'', 2 volumes, 1926-31 – Hittite art.Most widely held works about Edmond Pottier
WorldCat Identities

References

*Phillippe Rouet:Approaches to the Study of Attic Vases, Beazley and Pottier, Oxford, 2001. *Medwid, Linda M. The Makers of Classical Archaeology: A Reference Work. New York: Humanity Books, 2000 pp. 247–8. Scholars of ancient Greek pottery French art historians French archaeologists French classical scholars Lycée Condorcet alumni École Normale Supérieure alumni 1855 births 1934 deaths French male non-fiction writers {{France-archaeologist-stub