Family Born in
Strasbourg, he was the son of Henri Durrieu (1822-1890), founder and first president of the
crédit industriel et commercial, commander of the
légion d'honneur and receiver general for
Bas-Rhin, and his wife Gabrielle Lacave-Laplagne (1829-1891). Paul had an elder brother Tony (1847-1861), whilst his great-uncle
Antoine Simon Durrieu won renown in the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. He married Françoise Duchaussoy (1869-1949) and had four children with her Jean, Henry, Gabrielle and François.), he was made a member of the
École française de Rome in 1879 then two years later as an assistant to the
Louvre's paintings department in charge of illuminated manuscripts and late medieval French paintings. He was later made a curator, again in the paintings department. His time in Rome and his
Gascon family background influenced him to study the military and political links between France and Italy by organising the
Angevin archives in Naples. He then devoted himself to his role at the Louvre and to the history of painting and medieval illuminated manuscripts. He was made a Knight of the Légion d'honneur in 1903 and promoted to officer in the same order in 1921. He was elected to the
académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres in 1907 and died in
Rivière-Saas-et-Gourby in 1925. == Works ==