CATLIN, George Lettre autographe signée à Georges Washington Lafayette Pittsburgh Penn, 28 février 1834 1 p. in-4
Estimation :
5000 / 8000
Adjudication :
Invendu
Description
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
