The artist Sappho Marchal was the daughter of the renowned French conservator of Angkor, Henri Marchal. She spent the early years of her life in Cambodia, surrounded by the magnificent ruins of the Khmers, and produced the present study at age 23. Her fine line drawings present the myriad details of ornament and costume depicted on the stone reliefs of Angkor Wat with a clarity that could not be captured, even then, on film. Since that time, many of the stone carvings have severely deteriorated, rendering Marchal's drawings all the more valuable as a record for present-day students and restorers of Angkor.
