Antoine Polier

Colonel Antoine-Louis Henri de Polier (1741 – 9 February 1795) was a Swiss army officer and art collector who served in the East India Company's Presidency armies during the eighteenth century. He was the father of Adolphe de Polier.

Life Polier, Claude Martin, John Wombwell and Johann Zoffany surrounded by servants and Polier's art collection.

Antoine-Louis was born in Lausanne He designed the Bibiyapur Kothi, a royal residence outside of Lucknow.

On learning Indian mythology, Polier notes:

In India, he had two Indian wives, Jugnu and Zinat, and settled in France with an unfortunate timing as he arrived in time for the French revolution. Having purchased a chateau and taking a French wife and two children, Charles de Polier and Adolphe de Polier. He was assassinated in Avignon on February 9, 1795, in the terror that followed the French revolution.

Legacy

Polier's Mythology of the Hindus was edited by his cousin, Marie-Elisabeth Polier, for posthumous publication. Polier, who felt he had lost the ability to express himself easily in French or English as a result of his travels, dictated an autobiographical preface to her. Sanjay Subrahmanyam has suggested that her lack of knowledge of Indian geography may have introduced inconsistencies into the text. He was one of the first English writers on the Sikhs, in 1776 and 1780. A further work of his on the Sikhs co-authored with George Forster was published in 1803.

Polier's collection of miniatures are in Berlin.