GOBRECHT'S INSPIRATION Public Deposited
The E-Sylum: Volume 5, Number 39, September 29, 2002, Article 14
GOBRECHT'S INSPIRATION
Coin designers' artistic inspirations are a popular topic
among numismatic researchers. In a newspaper
advertisement (of all places) I recently saw a reference to
Gobrecht's inspiration for one of his Liberty head designs.
It was an ad peddling $10 gold coins. A search of the net
found a couple thirdhand references, but no original source
material. I was hoping to find an image of the painting
in question. In any event, perhaps one of our E-Sylum
readers can shed some more light on the issue.The best account I found was on a dealer web page
which credited Numismatic Guarantee Corp. (NGC)
for the story and photos. I was unable to find the same
text on the NGC web site."Director Robert M. Patterson was instructed to produce
eagles, and Acting Engraver Christian Gobrecht, replacing
the ailing William Kneass, prepared dies for a new design.Gobrecht's design, inspired by the portrait of Venus in
Benjamin West's Painting Omnia Vincit Amor (Love
Conquers All), also became the prototype for the half-eagle
and large cent of 1839." From
http://www.oldcoinshop.com/coinhistory/10-1838-66.htmThis page has links to several images of West's paintings:
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/west_benjamin.html- 2002-09-29
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