In 1887, he was the first child of French parents to be born in Cambodia.
He went on to create the National Museum in 1920 and an art school that became the Royal University of Fine Arts. He died in the country in 1945.
On the 124th anniversary of his birth yesterday, the French Embassy and the National Museum held a ceremony to honor George Groslier and mark the first reprint of his 1913 book on Cambodian classical dance.
Released by the US publishing house DatASIA, the book entitled “Cambodian Dancers, Ancient and Modern” is being launched this morning at Monument Books.
During yesterday’s event, which was attended by Princess Buppha Devi, who wrote the book’s preface, 26 dancers aged 12 to 16 years old, dressed in white, performed in the museum’s interior courtyard a classical dance inspired by Khmer dance rituals. They were students from a dance school under the princess’ patronage in Siem Reap province.
As Princess Buppha Devi writes in her preface, “George Groslier became the first Western scholar to document Cambodia’s dance tradition.”
By marking the reprint of his book, French Ambassador Christian Connan said Friday, the embassy meant to pay homage to this great scholar, whose work has exemplified the friendship between France and Cambodia.
Mr Groslier deeply cared about Cambodians and the country’s traditional arts, which he was determined to help preserve, said Kent Davis of DatASIA.
Moreover, Mr Groslier believed in having Cambodians manage their own arts institutions. In the years that followed the opening of the National Museum and the art school, he replaced the French staff, first appointed by the French authorities, with Cambodians, said Mr Davis, who has researched Mr Groslier’s life.
The 466-page book includes the original French text and sketches drawn by Mr Groslier himself, as well as the English translation of his text and an illustrated Groslier biography written in English.
The book launch starts at 11 am.
