H. Breuil has gone almost 40 years ago but
each book or article on prehistoric art in every language mentions his
works.
Henry Edward Prosper Breuil was born in Mortain (Normandie) in 1877. From
his childhood he was fond of natural sciences and prehistoric antiquities.
He combined amazingly the world outlook of a catholic priest and a
scientific approach to the study of the most ancient periods of the mankind
history, of the Palaeolithic art in particular His passion for the
Palaeolithic art started in 1897 when Edward Piette, the famous researcher
of the Pyrenees caves, showed him his Palaeolithic collections, different
things from the mammoth tusk and deer antler. That event influenced his
whole life. Up to his death in 1961, when Breuil was 84, he fruitfully
worked, studying Palaeolithic art monuments. He was often present at the
discovery of new caves, made excavations, copied ancient depictions, taught
at the Institute of the Man's Paleontology and at the chair of the College
de France. He visited all the continents where Palaeolithic art monuments
had been discovered. According to his own counting he spent underground 700
days. Numerous scientific publications, including "Four Hundred Centuries
of Cave Art", 1952.
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