PAUL VITRY (1872-1941)

In The E-Sylum last week, Trey Todd asked about citations to Vitry related to medals of Pierre Roche. Many of the prospective references are in French and not available in The Newman Numismatic Portal. This is what I found.

As an art historian and museum curator, he produced many catalogs on architecture, sculpture and their artists. Of special interest was the study of French Gothic cathedrals. He was one of the founders of the French historical method in art history. Among his topics were the war medals of Pierre Roche.

Eugene Paul Vitry was born in Paris on November 11, 1872. He graduated from the Sorbonne in 1892 with a degree in literature. He later graduated from the Ecole du Louvre in 1897.

He was a professor at the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs (National School of Decorative Arts) between 1901 and 1920.

In 1905 he was appointed assistant curator for the sculpture department at the Louvre in Paris. In 1906 he compiled Musee et monuments de France to protect local art from being sold In 1910, he reorganized the Museum of Fine Arts in Tours. In 1920 he was promoted to curator of the sculpture department at the Louvre. He was a professor at the Ecole du Louvre from 1920 to 1939.

Known as Monsieur Paul Vitry, he went on a lecture tour of the United States for the Alliance Francaise.

From 1913 to 1922 he was president of the Society of Decorative Artists. He was vice president of the 1914 organizing committee for the Lyon International Urban Exposition and for the 1915 World's Fair in San Francisco.

Vitry was a soldier during World War I from March 1915 through April 1919. After the war he was appointed assistant minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to work on restitution of art dispersed by the war.

As war again threatened in Europe, he worked to remove some items from the Louvre and was assigned to the Chateau de Chambord. He retired in 1939. Paul Vitry was the subject of a 1939 medal by Henri Bouchard.

He died in Paris on April 7, 1941. He had a daughter and two sons.

The name, Pierre Roche, is a pseudonym for Pierre Henry Ferdinand Massignon, born in Paris on August 2, 1855. He was the son of Ferdinand Charles Massignon and Louise Genevieve Coelina Roche.

He began as a student of medicine and chemistry but switched to the study of painting at the Academie Julian during 1873-1878. He received commissions for some monumental sculptures. He is best known for medals in the Art Nouveau style. He developed a process of printing from plaster molds. These are called gypsographs. He also made prints from metal plates. He was married to Marie Ferdinande Catherine Hovyn in Paris on January 5, 1880.

He produced a catalogue of 100 medals in L'Histoire metallique de la Guerre 1914-1918. All of his medals were cast and not struck.

Roche came from a family of means and did not rely on the sale of his art to make a living. Many of his works were produced in small quantities for friends.

He was co-founder of the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts.

He died in Paris on January 18, 1922. His family donated 4000 items from his studio to the Petit Palais in Paris.

Several recent exhibitions of the medals of Pierre Roach have been mentioned in The E-Sylum. The exhibition catalogues may include Vitry numbers and bibliographies.

Art of Devastation was an on-line exhibition for the American Numismatic Society in 2014.

The Art of Devastation: Medals and Posters of the Great War opened at the Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar on January 27, and closed on April 9, 2017. It was curated jointly by Patricia Phagan of Vassar and Peter van Alfen of the ANS. It was followed by a catalog published by the ANS. This won the 2017 award from the NLG for best book on tokens and medals.

Medallic Images of War: Death and Destruction 1850-1950 was curated by Scott Miller from the collection of David Simpson. It was exhibited at Medialia Gallery in New York City in 2018.

An exhibition, The Art Nouveau Spirit / The Pierre Roche donation to the Petit Palais from March 10 to September 11, 2022. This is available as a virtual exhibit. The war medals do not include Vitry numbers.

I wrote to Peter van Alfen, chief curator at the ANS, and asked if he could identify the Vitry citations. He suggested it was Catalogue de guerre des médailles, médaillons, plaquettes, jetons et gypsgraphes de Pierre Roche (1918). The ANS has a copy.

Scott Miller reported that he used Catalogue de Guerre Pierre Roche by Paul Vitry, and published by Canale, 1918.

I suspect those may be two names for the same thing. The catalog is 23 pages with plates. It was issued as 250 copies.

I enjoy looking for answers to numismatic questions and tracking down unknown biographies. I am always looking for questions from E-Sylum readers.

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
NEW CATALOG: FRENCH MEDALLIC ART IN THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v15n47a05.html)
EXHIBIT: MEDALLIC IMAGES OF WAR (https://www.coinbooks.org/v21/esylum_v21n38a24.html)
MEDALLIC REPRESENTATIONS OF DANCE (https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n28a21.html)
NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: MARCH 29, 2026: Vitry Publication Sought (https://www.coinbooks.org/v29/esylum_v29n13a09.html)

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