In 1790, military officer Marquis de Lafayette gifted a historical drawing from the French Revolution to President George Washington, his close friend and former commander in the American Revolutionary War who treasured the artwork until his death. Symbolic of their friendship, the drawing has resurfaced 235 years later for a Philadelphia-based auction this coming September, where it’s expected to fetch up to $800,000.
“The Destruction of the Bastille” (1789) was expertly inked by architect Étienne-Louis-Denis Cathala, who oversaw the Parisian state prison’s demolition per Lafayette’s orders after it was taken over by some 900 French revolutionaries on July 14, 1789, marking the violent start of the French Revolution.
Having returned home after serving in the American Revolutionary War, Lafayette had been appointed commander-in-chief to the Parisian National Guard and was tasked with maintaining order in the capital city as the nation buckled under its economic crisis, caused in part by its extensive support of America’s Continental Army as well as King Louis XVI’s extravagant lifestyle.
Lafayette, who maintained a close if not familial friendship with Washington after serving him during the American Revolution, sent the drawing as a gift to the President along with the metal key to the Bastille’s westside portal. The President cherished Cathala’s fastidiously rendered drawing of the prison fortress being dismantled brick by brick, declaring the work and the key tokens of “victory by Liberty over Despotism.”
Washington displayed “The Destruction of the Bastille” in his presidential homes in New York and Pennsylvania throughout his two terms, and then in the entrance hall of his Mount Vernon residence until his death in 1799. Twenty-five years after Washington died, Lafayette encountered the drawing again in the Mount Vernon home after visiting the President’s gravesite during his tour of the States.
Now, Cathala’s drawing is set to be included in the Freeman’s | Hindman Books and Manuscripts sale on September 10, having touched down in Paris late last June for the first time since 1790 for a brief display.
The work has since come stateside, shuttling from New York to Chicago and landing up in Philadelphia to go under the hammer.
“It seems only fitting that it returns to Paris, the heart of French democracy, before being sold in Philadelphia, the cradle of American democracy,” said Darren Winston, the Freeman’s | Hindman senior vice president and co-head of the Books and Manuscripts department, in a statement. “I can only imagine Washington and Lafayette would have appreciated the symmetry.”
