Le Dejeune de Ferney (Engraving)
Thomas Jefferson was a great admirer of Voltaire and, according to family tradition, presented this engraving of the philosopher dining at home as wedding gift to his granddaughter Ellen and her husband Joseph Coolidge.
Le Dejeune de Ferney, engraving by Denis Née & Louis Masquelier, 1775 after Baron Dominique Vivant Denon; photographic image (c) of the original object owned by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation.
Artist/Maker: Denis Née (c. 1732-1818) and Louis Masquelier (1741-1811), engravers, after Baron Dominique Vivant Denon (1747-1825)
Created: 1775
Origin/Purchase: France
Materials: engraving
Dimensions: 14.3 × 18.1 (5 5/8 × 7 1/8 in.)
Accession Number: 1963-19-2
Historical Notes: According to family tradition, Jefferson presented this engraving to his grandson-in-law Joseph Coolidge on the occasion of his marriage to Ellen Randolph in 1825. The image shows Voltaire having lunch at his summer home in Ferney, France. Jefferson, a great admirer of Voltaire's writing, returned from France with this print and Jean-Antoine Houdon's bust of the writer. The frame for this work has traditionally been attributed to Monticello's enslaved cabinetmaker John Hemmings.1
- Text from Stein, Worlds, 177
Footnotes
- James A. Bear, "Curator's Annual Report, 1963" (Charlottesville: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, 1964), 12-13.