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CATLIN
, George
Lettre autographe signée à Georges Washington Lafayette
Pittsburgh Penn, 28 février 1834
1 p. in-4
SUPERBE ET PÉNIBLE LETTRE DU PEINTRE GEORGE CATLIN. IL RÉCLAME
AU MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE LE RENVOI DU DESSIN DE LA “VIRGINIAN
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION” POUR LEQUEL IL AVAIT SOLLICITÉ L’AIDE DU
GÉNÉRAL EN VUE DE LA RÉALISATION DE SA GRAVURE À PARIS
“I transmitted to your father, Genl Lafayette, several years since, a painting which I had made
of the
Virginia Convention
, and at that time I was intending to have it engraved in Paris. I sent it
enclosed in a tin tube, by the hand of a friend from Norfolk, Virginia, who tells me he delivered it
to your Father. I wrote to your father before his decease requesting him to have it forwarded to
me (...) but owing I suppose to the extraordinary (...) agitation of his mind at the time, it had not
been returned (...) I am anxious to procure it as soon as possible. I have now a subscription list
of $5. 000”...
The original drawing of the very famous aquatint of George Catlin representing the
Virginian Constitutional Convention
is now at the
New York Historical Society
. In a
curious way of looking for patronage, Catlin wrote some letters to Lafayette about that
matter (starting on 1 August 1830). The artist wanted to secure en vain Lafayette’s
protection and asked him to find himself an engraver in Paris.
RÉFÉRENCES : cf. B. W. Dippie,
Catlin and his contemporaries : The Politic of Patronage
, 1990,
ch. II -- B. Eisler, The
Red man’s bone : George Catlin, Artist and Showman
, Londres, 2013, pp.
70-73
5 000 / 8 000
€
The Virginia Constitutional Convention
, 1830, by George Catlin