Object Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
1972.2499 |
Object Name |
Medallion |
Title |
Medallion with Portrait of Marquis de Lafayette |
School |
Wedgwood |
Description |
Profile portrait of Marquis de Lafayette, stamped "Wedgwood' and "Lafayette" on rear. Ceramic, white on black jasper dip. |
Label |
French soldier and statesman Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, best known by his title of the Marquis de Lafayette, became a celebrity after fighting alongside George Washington in the Revolutionary War. To make this medallion, the Wedgwood ceramics firm probably copied Benjamin Duvivier’s 1789 depiction of Lafayette. First sold in France in the 1830s along with other images of French notables, the medallion shows Lafayette in the uniform of a colonel-general of the National Guard of Paris. He does, however, wear on his lapel the "Eagle" of the Society of the Cincinnati, a group founded in 1783 by American and French officers to preserve the ideals of the American Revolution. |
Medium |
Ceramic |
Dimensions |
H-3.75 W-3 inches |
Dimension Details |
Oval Framed: 7.75 x 6.75 x 1.5 |
Credit line |
American Philosophical Society. Gift of the estate of Isaac Minis Hays, 1967. |
Search Terms |
18th century eighteenth century 19th century nineteenth century sculpture profile France French |