Edmond François Paul Pottier (13 August 1855,

Saarbrücken Saarbrücken (; Rhenish Franconian: ''Sabrigge'' ; ; ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken has 181,959 inhabitants and is Saarland's administrative, commerci ...

– 4 July 1934, Paris) was an

art historian Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Traditionally, the ...

and

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

who was instrumental in establishing the Corpus vasorum antiquorum. He was a pioneering scholar in the study of

Ancient Greek pottery 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 exerted a dispro ...

. He was born in

, Rhineland, the son of a civil engineer he won a place at the

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

and went on to study at the

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

and the École d'Athènes, his thesis was on the subject of the chronology of Athenian

archon ''Archon'' (, plural: , ''árchontes'') is a Greek word that means "ruler", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem , meaning "to be first, to rule", derived from the same ...

s. It was during his tenure as a curator at the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

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 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 exerted a dispr ...

s held in the national collections of every nation in 1919, the '' Corpus vasorum antiquorum''. 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 List of literary awards, literary prize awarded each year by an exclusively female jury. The prize, which was established in 1904, is awarded to French-language works written in prose or Verse (poetry), verse by male ...

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 of

Attica Attica (, ''Attikḗ'' (Ancient Greek) or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the entire Athens metropolitan area, which consists of the city of Athens, the capital city, capital of Greece and the core cit ...

. * ''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 ...

; 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, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...

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