Details
L'ENFANT, PIERRE CHARLES. Autograph letter signed ("P L'Enfant") to his parents (in France), New York, 13 February 1787. 4 pages, 4to, second leaf inlaid to a larger sheet, first leaf with minor repair in margin, in French. Rare.
THE ARCHITECT OF WASHINGTON, D.C. COMPLAINS ABOUT MONEY HE IS OWED BY THE SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI
A lengthy, apologetic letter, complaining of money owed him by the Society of the Cincinnati. L'Enfant (1754-1825), an engineer and architect, served at his own expense as an officer and engineer in the American army, but returned to France at the end of 1783. He was commissioned by the Society of the Cincinnati, to which he belonged, to design their insignia and have it engraved in France, but the project proved extremely costly. He returned to New York in 1784, hopeful of being paid, but requests a loan from his father, the court painter Pierre L'Enfant: "...I am all the more astonished by your silence... [I am] still detained in America...in recovering the 30,000 pounds that I am owed by the United States, and 25 or 26,000 pounds for which I am accidently responsible... Notwithstanding my reasons for persisting in the principles that have guided my conduct toward [the United States] and the [Society of the] Cincinnatis, still prudence enjoins me to take measures to meet any circumstances, and I am...occupied with finding a way of leaving here where...I have only been able to meet my daily needs through credit. A ruinous expedient...[M]y daily expenditures...are nevertheless exhorbitant in comparison to what they would have been in Europe...I am relying on the efforts of your friendship... The obligation which I already owe you for the help that you gave me at the time of my departure from France, and my powerlessness to fulfill the promise that I had made you to facilitate repayment of the borrowed sum... would have made me prefer, you may be sure... any other solution -- if I had a choice..."
L'Enfant lingered in America, and at the invitation of Washington, laid out the new national capital on the Potomac, although he was dismissed soon afterwards and his visionary scheme was not fully implemented until after his death.
Provenance: Philip D. and Elsie O. Sang (sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, 26 April 1978, lot 174).
THE ARCHITECT OF WASHINGTON, D.C. COMPLAINS ABOUT MONEY HE IS OWED BY THE SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI
A lengthy, apologetic letter, complaining of money owed him by the Society of the Cincinnati. L'Enfant (1754-1825), an engineer and architect, served at his own expense as an officer and engineer in the American army, but returned to France at the end of 1783. He was commissioned by the Society of the Cincinnati, to which he belonged, to design their insignia and have it engraved in France, but the project proved extremely costly. He returned to New York in 1784, hopeful of being paid, but requests a loan from his father, the court painter Pierre L'Enfant: "...I am all the more astonished by your silence... [I am] still detained in America...in recovering the 30,000 pounds that I am owed by the United States, and 25 or 26,000 pounds for which I am accidently responsible... Notwithstanding my reasons for persisting in the principles that have guided my conduct toward [the United States] and the [Society of the] Cincinnatis, still prudence enjoins me to take measures to meet any circumstances, and I am...occupied with finding a way of leaving here where...I have only been able to meet my daily needs through credit. A ruinous expedient...[M]y daily expenditures...are nevertheless exhorbitant in comparison to what they would have been in Europe...I am relying on the efforts of your friendship... The obligation which I already owe you for the help that you gave me at the time of my departure from France, and my powerlessness to fulfill the promise that I had made you to facilitate repayment of the borrowed sum... would have made me prefer, you may be sure... any other solution -- if I had a choice..."
L'Enfant lingered in America, and at the invitation of Washington, laid out the new national capital on the Potomac, although he was dismissed soon afterwards and his visionary scheme was not fully implemented until after his death.
Provenance: Philip D. and Elsie O. Sang (sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, 26 April 1978, lot 174).
Provenance