L’Amérique Indépendante. Dediée au Congrès des Etats unis de l’Amérique. A Paris ches l’Auteur rue Boucherat au coin de la rue Xaintonge. Par leur très humble et très obéissant serviteur Borel.
Copper engraving [50.3 x 37.4cm]. Below the portrait on the left, the engraved text: “A Borel invenit et delineavit 1778”; on the right: “J.C. le Vasseur sculptor regis et Majestm. Imperm. Et Regm. Sculp”. Scattered light toning and soiling, small tide mark on right margin not affecting image; margins on verso reinforced with laid paper. Separately published allegorical portrait of Benjamin Franklin, by Jean Charles Levasseur after a drawing by Antoine Borel, dedicated to the Continental Congress. It depicts Franklin, dressed in classical garb and in a Roman toga with a laurel wreath symbolizing the Congress, standing before a palm tree (the New World) as the liberator of America. His right hand is placed protectively on the shoulder of America, represented by a Native American maiden, who kneels before Liberty. The figure of prudence stands at Franklin’s left. Minerva flies above Franklin and America wielding a spear, while Courage, armed as a Roman soldier, overthrows the crowned figures of England and Neptune; Agriculture and Commerce look on with approval. The central vignette along the lower border shows a chain of 13 links, each inscribed with the name of one of the original 13 states; within the ring sits a 13-string harp enveloped by a ribbon with the head of a serpent and the Latin motto “Majora minoribus consonant” (The greater and the lesser ones sound together). Both are after Franklin’s designs for Continental American currency in use at the time. This choice of allegorical imagery, highlighted by Franklin in his appeals for French support, suggested the potential for future trade with a free America. Although Borel offered to dedicate the engraving to Franklin, to which the elder statesman forcefully objected. In a letter from Franklin to Borel dated 24 June 1778, Franklin wrote: “On reading again the Prospectus and Explanation of your Intended Print, I find the whole Merit of giving Freedom to America, continues to be ascrib’d to me, which, as I told you in our first Conversation, I could by no means approve of, as it would be unjust to the Numbers of wise and brave Men who by their Arms and Counsels have shared in the Enterprize and contributed to its Success, (as far as it has yet succeeded) at the Hazard of their Lives and Fortunes. My Proposition to you was, and continues to be, that instead of naming me in particular, in the Explanation of the Print, it should be said, The Congress, represented by a Senator in Roman Dress, &c. As it stands, I cannot consent to accept the Honour you propose to do me by dedicating the Print to me, which I understand is in this Country considered, as an Approbation.” After a lengthy delay for approval by the French government, the planned engraving was finally advertised to subscribers in May 1778 (Schiff). Antoine Borel (1743-c1810), French painter and engraver, was a pupil at the Académie royale and received second prize in 1777; in 1779 he exhibited at the Salon de la Correspondance. He worked in a variety of genres, including portraiture, history painting, and book illustration. The engraver Jean Charles Levasseur (1734-1816) studied with J.-F. Beauvarlet and join the Académie royale in 1771. He exhibited at the Salon from 1769 to 1789. Rare: OCLC records four copies, at Brown University, John Carter Brown Library, Society of the Cincinnati, and William Clements Library, University of Michigan. A copy last sold at Swann Galleries for $5,750 on June 27, 2024.
* Benezit, vol. 2, p. 176 (Borel), and vol. 6, p. 626 (Levasseur); Fowble 142; N. Jeffares, Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800 (online) (Borel); S. Schiff, A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America (2005), p. 159; C.C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture (1962), pp. 195-197, pl. 32. For Franklin’s 1778 letter to Antoine Borel, see: “From Benjamin Franklin to [Antoine Borel], 24 June 1778,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-26-02-0611 [original source: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 26, March 1 through June 30, 1778, ed. William B. Willcox. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1987, pp. 678–679].
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