Life

Marcel Aubert was the son of an architect who died when he was only seven years old. Following his studies at the Lycée Condorcet

Lycée Condorcet

The Lycée Condorcet is a school founded in 1803 in Paris, France, located at 8, rue du Havre, in the city's IXe arrondissement. Since its inception, various political eras have seen it given a number of different names, but its identity today honors the memory of the Marquis de Condorcet. The...

, he entered the École Nationale des Chartes

École Nationale des Chartes

The École Nationale des Chartes is a grand établissement, an elite French university-level educational institution based in Paris. It provides education and training for archivists and librarians and forms part of the University of Paris.-History:...

 where he wrote a thesis on the Cathedral

Senlis Cathedral

Senlis Cathedral is a former Roman Catholic cathedral in Senlis, Oise, France.It was formerly the seat of the Bishopric of Senlis, abolished under the Concordat of 1801, when its territory was passed to the Diocese of Beauvais.The cathedral was built between 1153 and 1191; its south tower dates...

 of Senlis in 1907 and won the goodwill of his professor Robert de Lasteyrie.

He was named attache to the printing department of the National Library

Bibliothèque nationale de France

The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...

 in 1909, and then assistant librarian in the prints department in 1911. He retained this post until 1919 (with three years' captivity in Germany).

In 1920, Aubert moved into the world of museums, taking a position at the Louvre

Louvre

The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...

 as assistant to Paul Vitry in the department of Medieval, Renaissance, and Modern Sculpture. He succeeded Vitry as chief curator in 1940 and was soon named senior curator of the National Museums, a post that he occupied until his retirement in 1955, as well as being curator of the Musée Rodin

Musée Rodin

The Musée Rodin in Paris, France, is a museum that was opened in 1919 in the Hôtel Biron and surrounding grounds. It displays works by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin....

 and the Institut de France

Institut de France

The Institut de France is a French learned society, grouping five académies, the most famous of which is the Académie française.The institute, located in Paris, manages approximately 1,000 foundations, as well as museums and chateaux open for visit. It also awards prizes and subsidies, which...

's Musée Condé in the Chateau de Chantilly

Château de Chantilly

The Château de Chantilly is a historic château located in the town of Chantilly, France. It comprises two attached buildings; the Grand Château, destroyed during the French Revolution and rebuilt in the 1870s, and the Petit Château which was built around 1560 for Anne de Montmorency...

.

In tandem with his career as a curator, Aubert taught throughout his working life. He succeeded to Eugène Lefèvre-Pontalis

Eugène Lefèvre-Pontalis

Eugène Lefèvre-Pontalis was a French medievalist and archeologist.Following his studies at the Lycée Condorcet, he entered the École Nationale des Chartes where he wrote a thesis on religious architecture in the ancient Diocese of Soissons in the 11th and 12th centuries...

' chair of Medieval Archaeology at the École des Chartes in 1924, where he taught for nearly 30 years. He also taught at the École du Louvre

École du Louvre

The École du Louvre is an institution of higher education and French Grande École located in the Aile de Flore of the Musée du Louvre in Paris, France, and is dedicated to the study of archaeology, art history, anthropology and epigraphy....

 as associate professor of Industrial Arts from 1921 to 1924 and as professor of Sculpture from 1940 to 1949, and at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts

École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts

The École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts is the distinguished National School of Fine Arts in Paris, France.The École des Beaux-arts is made up of a vast complex of buildings located at 14 rue Bonaparte, between the quai Malaquais and the rue Bonaparte, in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Près,...

 in the chair of French Architecture from 1929 to 1934 and the chair of Medieval Archaeology starting in 1937.

Aubert worked mostly in the field of medieval architecture, but he was also interested in sculpture. He is also considered one of the fathers of the history of stained glass. He showed that not only is architectural evolution a consequence of the tastes of the time, but also of the mastery of techniques. Aubert is counted among the first of the teachers of French art history.

Aubert was elected to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres

The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres is a French learned society devoted to the humanities, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France.-History:...

 (Academy of Humanities) in 1934. In 1936, he was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...

.

Works

Only Aubert's monographs and his university works are listed here. For more information, see Bibliographie des travaux scientifiques de M. Marcel Aubert, Paris: Société française d'archéologie, 1948, which contains all his publications up till 1948, 297 in number.

• La Cathédrale de Senlis, thesis at l'École des chartes, 1905
• La Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, doctoral thesis, published in Paris: Longuet, 1909
• Monographie de la cathédrale de Senlis, Senlis: Dufresne, 1911
• Senlis, Paris: Laurent, 1913
• Mennetou-sur-Cher, Blois: éd. du jardin de la France, 1921
• Catalogue des sculptures du Moyen Âge, de la Renaissance et des Temps modernes [du musée du Louvre], Paris: Musées nationaux, 1922 (with Paul Vitry)
• edited L'architecture religieuse en France à l'époque gothique by Robert de Lasteyrie (posth.), Paris: Picard, 1926-1927
• Notre-Dame de Paris. Architecture et sculpture, Paris: Morancé, 1928
• L'art français à l'époque romane. Architecture et sculpture, Paris: Morancé, 4 vol. , 1929-1948
• La sculpture française au début de l'époque gothique, Paris: ed. by Pégase, 1929
• Les richesses d'art de la France. La sculpture en Bourgogne, Paris: Van Oest, 1930
• L'abbaye des Vaux-de-Cernay, Paris, 1931
• Le Mont-Saint-Michel. L'abbaye, Grenoble: P. Arthaud, 1937
• Vitraux des cathédrales de France aux XIIe et XIIIe siècles, Paris: Plon, 1937
• L'église de Conques, Paris: Laurens, 1939
• L'architecture cistercienne en France, Paris: éd. d'art et d'histoire, 1943 (with the Marquise de Maillé)
• Rodin, sculpteur, Paris, 1952