Léon Palustre

He was born to infantry captain François Léon Palustre and his wife Marie Daguin in Saivres, where his father was then based.^[3] He studied at the Jesuit collège in Poitiers, where he gained his baccalaureat.^[3] He then travelled in Egypt and Italy (1866), giving him a taste for archaeology, though he only ever exercised it from his office.^[4] In 1862, he was made a member of the Société française d'archéologie pour la conservation des monuments.^[5]

Living solely off his investments, he settled in Touraine, where he became a corresponding member of the Société archéologique de Touraine on 31 March 1869 but it was only in 1870 that he really became interested in archaeology, publishing one article a month in the Bulletin monumental as studies of varied themes in Touraine's history.^[5] A polemicist, he opposed destroying historical buildings and was very critical of restorations as carried out by Viollet-le-Duc and his imitators.^[5]

On Auguste Pécard's death Palustre was made the museum's curator in July 1871,^[4] holding the post until 1874, when he resigned, as he wished to sell the museum to the town of Tours.^[6] In 1875 he became director of the Société française d'archéologie after Arcisse de Caumont's resignation on health grounds in 1872.^[5] Palustre kept the role until 1883 then became honorary director whilst still editing the Bulletin monumental.^[5] He served two terms as president of the Société archéologique de Touraine (1883–1889 and 1892–1894), spending the interim as its honorary president (1889–1892).^[7]

He is also notable for the many archaeological events he put on, such as the congresses he took part in (1875–1877) then organised (from 1878 onwards) in Toulouse (1875), Châlons-sur-Marne (1876), Autun (1876), Senlis (1877), Le Mans (1878), Arras (1880), Vienne (1881) and Caen (1883).^[8] Palustre also took part in several exhibitions and publishing catalogues of them. He proved one of the pioneers in using photography for art.^[9] and photographed several now-lost monuments^[10] such as the église Saint-Clément de Tours, which he photographed in detail just before its destruction in 1883.^[11] He died in 1894 in the Saint-Symphorien district of Tours.^[12] · ^[13]

• 
  The église Saint-Clément de Tours before its destruction
• 
  La Renaissance en France
• 
  Figure 36 : the château de Gaillon

• prix Marcelin Guérin from the Académie française in 1889 for his book La Renaissance en France.
• Knight of the Légion d'honneur, announced on 8 April 1893^[14] and presented on 17 April the same year

• L'architecture de la Renaissance - Dessins et gravures sous la direction de Eugène Sadoux. Vol. 1 (Flandre, Artois, Picardie, Île-de-France). Paris: A. Quantin - imprimeur-éditeur. 1879.
• L'architecture de la Renaissance - Dessins et gravures sous la direction de Eugène Sadoux. Vol. 2 (Île-de-France, Normandie). Paris: A. Quantin - imprimeur-éditeur. 1881. Retrieved 21 December 2012.
• La Renaissance en France. Paris: Ancienne maison Quantin. 1888.,
• L'architecture de la Renaissance. Bibliothèque de l'enseignement des Beaux-Arts publiée sous la direction de M. Jules Comte. Paris: Ancienne maison Quantin - Librairies-imprimeries réunies. 1892. Retrieved 21 December 2012.