The Medallic History of the United States of America 1776-1876 | Page 7

HOSTIUM NAVIBUS CAPTIS AUT FUGATIS.
Exergue: AD ORAM SCOTI? 23 SEPT. 1779.
The following, from the same to the same, bearing date February 15, 1789, throws some light on the prices of the medals engraved by M. Dupr��:
To M. DUPR��, Engraver of Medals, Paris.
Mr. Jefferson has the honour to observe to M. Dupr�� that he pays only twenty-four hundred livres to M. Duvivier or to M. Gatteaux for medals which measure twenty-four lignes, that he paid the same sum to M. Dupr�� himself for that of General Greene, and that recently M. Dupr�� asked no higher price for that of General Morgan. Mr. Jefferson cannot, therefore, consent to give more. For that sum he would expect to have the best work of M. Dupr�� and not that of inferior artists. As regards time, perhaps it may be possible to prolong it somewhat in regard to the medal for Admiral Paul Jones, that officer being at present in Europe. Mr. Jefferson will have the honour to await M. Dupr��'s answer, and will be happy to conclude this arrangement with him.[9]
February 15, 1789.
[Footnote 9: For the French original see F, page xlv.]
It is to be supposed that Dupr�� accepted these conditions, since he is the engraver of the John Paul Jones medal, one of the finest specimens in our collection. The Daniel Morgan piece is no less remarkable as an effort of numismatic skill. The fight at the Cowpens, on the reverse, is a striking example of the boldness with which Dupr�� enlarged (p.?xxii) the limits of his art, and, in defiance of all traditional rules, successfully represented several planes in the background.
I cannot do better than to give the opinion, concerning this and the other of Dupr��'s American medals, of M. Charles Blanc,[10] from whom I quote freely in the following:
[Footnote 10: INSTITUT DE FRANCE--ACAD��MIE DES BEAUX-ARTS Notice sur la vie et les ouvrages d'Augustin Dupr��, Graveur-G��n��ral des Monnoies de la R��publique. Lue dans la s��ance trimestrielle des cinq classes de l'Institut, le 26 Octobre, 1870, par M. Charles Blanc.]
The Morgan medal, says this eminent French critic, seems to vibrate beneath the rush of cavalry and the tread of infantry flying in the background, indicated by the almost imperceptible lines of the metal where the smoke of the cannonade is vanishing away in air. In the Libertas Americana medal, which recalls, if we except the evacuation of Boston, the two most memorable events of the War of Independence, namely, the capitulation of General Burgoyne, at Saratoga, in October, 1777, and that of General Lord Cornwallis, at Yorktown, in October, 1781, Dupr�� has represented the new-born Liberty, sprung from the prairies without ancestry and without rulers, as a youthful virgin, with disheveled hair and dauntless aspect, bearing across her shoulder a pike, surmounted by the Phrygian cap. This great artist, in consequence of his intimacy with Franklin, had conceived the greatest enthusiasm for the cause of the United States. Franklin resided at Passy, and Dupr�� at Auteuil. As they both went to Paris every day, they met and made acquaintance on the road--an acquaintance which soon ripened into friendship. Dupr�� first engraved Franklin's seal with the motto, "In simplici salus," and afterward his portrait. This (p.?xxiii) portrait presents an alto-rilievo which is well adapted for medals only; it is conceived in the spirit of the French school, which has always attached great importance to the truthful rendering of flesh. The artist has indicated the flat parts, the relaxation of the muscles, and, as it were, the quivering of the flesh, so as to convey an exact idea of the age of the model. He has conscientiously represented the lines which the finger of Time imprints on the countenance, but, above all, he has given us with wonderful fidelity the physiognomy of the American sage, his shrewd simplicity, his sagacity, and his expression of serene uprightness. A Latin hexameter from the pen of Turgot became the well-known legend of this medal: "Eripuit coelo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis."
The four pieces executed by Duvivier are no less remarkable for beauty and excellence of workmanship. They all figured at the exhibitions of the members of the Royal Academy of Paris, that of the Chevalier de Fleury, as mentioned before, in the exhibition of 1781, and those of of General and of Lieutenant-Colonel Washington, and Lieutenant-Colonel Howard, in that of 1789.[11]
[Footnote 11: See G, page xlv.]
In those by Gatteaux, the personification of America as an Indian queen with an alligator at her feet is noteworthy.
With the exception of the Treaty of Commerce medal (1822), and perhaps of that of Captain Truxtun, our medals after the War of Independence were engraved and struck at home. Before that time, indeed, the one voted in 1779 to Major Henry Lee had been made by John Wright, of Philadelphia. From the close of the