Who was ANDRIEU, BERTRAND?

ANDRIEU, BERTRAND (French) was born on the 4th of November, 1761, at Bordeaux. His father was a cooper; the name of his mother was Francoise Dubourdieu. Lavau, his first teacher, was an engraver of armorial bearings, and a die-sinker, and is described as a man of taste and a skilful craftsman. At the age of 25, Andricu left his native city for Paris, where he immediately entered the studio of the sculptor and medallist Gatteaux, having previously gained distinction as a draughtsman at the Académie de Peinture of Bordeaux. Once in the capital, the young artist made such rapid progress that three years later, in 1789, he engraved the medal on the Taking of the Bastille, of which several varieties exist. In an II, he competed for the engraving of the new coins of the French Republic and also applied for the post of Engravergeneral at the Mint, which was given to Augustin Dupré. A pattern Ecu of 6 Livres of Louis XVI. (illustrated) was amongst the specimens of his works exhibited before the Académie de Peinture et de sculpture, which was to select Duvivier's successor. On the 3rd Pluviôse an III (27. January, 1794), he married Félicité Beckers, a lady of high connections. In an IV, the engraver executed two large medallions (diam. 80 mill.) representing, the one, a head of Apollo, and the other, a head of Minerva, but for several years after, he remained in comparative obscurity, until 1798, when he began again to exhibit at the Salon. The medal commemorating the Peace of Lunéville produced quite a sensation amongst lovers of art, and that of the Battle of Marengo (1800) passed, according to Bolzenthal, as " the triumph of modern glyptography ". We may add that although Andrieu will ever rank as one of the most brilliant medallists of the Napoleonic era, he no longers remains as preeminent in the popular estimation. The Paris Mint Collection preserves an almost complete collection of Andrieu's medals and dies. From contemporary records we learn that the artist was paid 5000 francs for engraving the head of the Emperor, 6000 francs for his medal on the Birth of the Duke of Bordeaux and 15.000 francs for another, on the same event, commissioned by the city of Paris, &c. M. de Fayolle gives the following list of Medals engraved by Andrieu. 1789, Siege of the Bastille (2 var.); — Arrival of the King in Paris (2 var.); — Offering to the Nation; — 1790, F?te of the Federation ; — Anniversary of the Taking of the Bastille (2 var.) ; — 1 79 1, Pattern Ecu of six Livres (illustrated); — 1793, Medal bearing the motto : ILS ONT SU LA DÉFENDRE ET MOURIR POUR ELLE; — 1796, Head of Apollo (2 var.); — Head of Minerva (2 var.); — 1797, Caisse d'Escompte du Commerce (jeton) ; — Philotechnical Society (2 var. ; jetons) ; — 1800, Bonaparte of Ajaccio (2 var.) ; — Battle of Marengo ; — Crossing of the Rhine and Danube; — Peace of Amiens; — Bonaparte, First Consul; — 1801, Gengembre's Patterns with bust of Lavoisier (2 var.) ; — Peace of Lunéville (2 var.); — Marriage Medal (3 var.); — General Peace (2 var.); — 1802, Reëstablishment of Public Worship ; — Organisation of Public Education ; — Switzerland pacified (First meeting of the Grand Conseil of canton Vaud); — Fourth year of Bonaparte's consulate; — 1803, Chamber of Commerce of Avignon (jeton); — Jeton of the Banque Perregaux ; — Jeton of the Bank of France ; — Building of a bridge over the Durance ; — Award for Fidelity (2 var.) ; — 1804, Napoleon, Emperor ; — The Paris Chamber of Commerce (jeton) ; — Coronation of Napoleon (2 sizes); — Vaccination; — Central Museum erected at Gap ; — Musée Napoleon, The Laocöon Room ; — Another, The Apollo Room ; — Another, Rooms of the Laocöon and Apollo ; — Chamber of Commerce of Amiens (jeton) ; — Reëstablishment of the Medal-mint (2 var.) ; — Moneta personified (cliché); — 1805, Napoleon, Emperor and King; — Josephine, Empress and Queen ; — Ampire (sic) of the French ; — Battle of Austerlitz; — Interview between the two Emperors at Urchitz; — Peace of Presburg (2 var.) ; — Cathedral of Vienna, and Thanksgivings for peace; — Building of a bridge over the Rhône at Avignon; — 1806, Marriage of the Prince of Baden; — Battle of Jena; — Industrial Exhibition; — Alliance with Saxony; — Distribution of crowns ; — Head of Prince Joachim, Duke of Berg and Cleves; — 1807, Napoleon's sojourn at Osterode ; — Conquest of Silesia ; — Peace of Tilsit; — Independence, or Deliverance of Dantzic ; — General Distribution of Prizes ; — Marriage of Jerome Napoleon, King of Westphalia (3 var.); — Visit of the King and Queen of Westphalia to the Mint; — Hymen and Eros ; — Agricultural Society of Haute- Vienne (jeton); — 1805, Visit of the Emperor to Toulouse ; — Princess Pauline ; — Princess Pauline visits the Medal-mint, — Queen Hortense; — Queen Hortense visits the Medal-mint; — Princess Eliza; — Princess Eliza visits the Medal-mint; — Central Committee of Vaccination; — 1809, Chamber of Commerce ot Dieppe (2 var. ; jetons); — Imperial Printing Works; — Treaty of Presburg broken ; — Reunion of the Roman State to the Empire (2 var.); — Napoleon enters Vienna (Porte St. Martin and Corinthian Gate); — The Ourcq Canal (2 var.) ; — Peace of Vienna ; — The King of Saxony visits the Medal-mint; — 1810, The King and Queen of Bavaria visit the Paris Medal-mint; — Marriage of the Emperor Napoleon with Marie-Louise (6 var. of size and type); — Napoleon, laur. head to 1. ; — Conjoined busts of Napoleon and Marie-Louise ; — Empress Marie-Louise; — Napoleon and Marie-Louise ; — Decennial Prize Medal (Minerva distributing wreaths ; 2 var.) ; — Bust of Napoleon I,; — Academy of Sciences, &c, of Dijon (jeton) ; — Central Society of Vaccination ; — 1811, Birth of the King of Rome (6 var.) ; — Baptism of the King of Rome (2 var. ; one illustrated) ; — Athen?um of Vaucluse; — 1812, Marriage Medal (2 sizes); — Taking of Wilna ; — 1813, The Empress visits the Medal-mint ; — Return of the Emperor from Elba ; — Napoleon and Hannibal; — 1814, Warsaw refuses to capitulate; — The Duke of Angoul?me enters Bordeaux; — Landing of the King at Calais (3 var.); — Constitutional Charter (2 var.); — Alexander I. of Russia visits the Medal-mint (2 var.); — Sojourn of Alexander I. at Paris; — 1815, Exhumation of the remains of Louis XVI. ; — Exhumation of the remains of Louis XVI. and Marie-Antoinette ; — Departure of the Bourbons, or France in mourning on the 20th of March ; — Pattern Louis of Forty Francs; — The Duchess of Angoul?me ; — The Duke of Angoul?me presides over the Electoral College of the Gironde ; — Bust of Louis XVIII. (4 var.) ; — Notaries of the Arrondissement of Senlis (jeton) ; — Chamber of Commerce of Dieppe (jeton) ; — Pattern Five-franc piece ; — Medal of the Lys Decoration ; — 1816, Marriage of the Duke of Berry (2 var.) ; — Butchers' Association (jeton) ; — Insurance Company at Hâvre (jeton) ; — Royal Marine Insurance Company of Paris (jeton); — Restoration of the statue of Henry IV. (3 var. of size and type) ; — Jean Racine ; — 1820, Death of the Duke of Berry ; — Birth of the Duke of Bordeaux (medal commissioned by the Government) ; — Another (medal commissioned by the City of Paris); — 1822, Visit of the Prince and Princess of Denmark to the Mint; — Undated. Lafosse fréres (oval piece) ; Banca di Lucca ; — Manufactory of St. Nicholas ; — Industry of Wood-floating (jeton) ; — Charles Augustus, Duke of Saxony (2 var.); — Coins of Duke of Saxe- Gotha-Altenburg ; &c. The heads or Napoleon I., and Louis XVIII., engraved by Andrieu, were found so beautiful that they were used for the obverses of numerous medals of those two reigns, the reverses of which bear the signatures of other engravers. Some of the dies executed by Andrieu are still in use at the Paris Mint ; for instance those of the Marriage Medals, Minerva seated, &c. Andrieu died at Paris on the 10th December, 1822 ; he was a Knight of the Royal Order of St. Michael, and of the Order of the Lys ; also an honorary member of the Academy of Fine Arts of Vienna. This artist drew a number of sketches for Assignats, the charming figures which adorn the stereotyped edition of Virgil of Firmin-Didot, playing-cards, the Bank of France 1817 note; besides which he engraved several ex-libris, and M. de Fayolle calls him the "Father of the postage stamp ". Andrieu ", says Miel, " is at the head of the school of engravers which flourished under the first French Empire. " His work bears the stamp of the epoch he lived in, when Napoleon was the Caesar of a modern Rome ; his style combines, as one has said, " the noble elegance of the Greeks with the charming truth to nature so much admired in Warin and Dupré. " This judgment would hardly stand if measured with our modern views. Andrieu executed the decennial prize medal granted by the jury at the Salons for the best works of art ; the medallions representing Queen Hortense and the Princesses Pauline and Eliza Bonaparte are also by him. His idealised head of Napoleon served for the obverse of the greater number of the Napoleonic series of medals, and at the Salons of 1798, 1801, 1802. 1804, 1806, 1809, 1810, 1812, 1814, 1817 and 1819 he exhibited over a hundred of his best productions. His medals of Alexander I. of Russia, France mourning over the Departure of the Bourbons, the Return of Napoleon I. from Elba are dated 1814 and 1815. In 1817, he executed the commemorative medal of the Constitutional Chart, and that of the Electoral college of Bordeaux ; in 1819 those of the Statue of Henry IV., a masterpiece on which he was congratulated by Louis XVIII. in person, and the Landing of the King at Calais on the 12th of March. His two last medals were struck on the occasions of the Birth and the Baptism of the Duke of Bordeaux, the last having been finished only three months before the death of the artist. In the Swiss series, there is a medal by him of 1803, commemorating the first meeting on April 14. 1803 of the Grand Conseil of Canton Vaud. An edition of Virgil by Didot in 1797 was illustrated by Andrieu, and to him is also due the engraving of the steel plate for a 1000 Franc note of 1817 . Although Andrieu cannot be compared with some of his predecessors or successors, he certainly was one of the best engravers of his time, and was not surpassed by any of his contemporaries Dumarest, Brenet, Mercié, Webb, Santarelli, &c, except perhaps Droz. It is stated that Andrieu frequently engraved the dies direct, which would account for the fact that hardly any puncheons exist by him, and shows the sureness of his hand and wonderful skill. The Paris Mint Museum possesses 79 medals and jetons by Andrieu. An extensive list of medals engraved by Andrieu appeared in Spink and Son's Numismatic Circular for February 1900. Bibliography. — Information kindly supplied by M. A. Evrard de Fayolle, 69, cours Balguerie, Bordeaux, who has placed at my disposal the list he has compiled of the works of Andrieu, which was published in the " Gazette numismatique francaise ". — E. Johannet, Andrieu, graveur en médailles, Paris, 1885. — Trésor de numismatique et de glyptique, médailles de la Révolution francaise, Paris, 1856. — Médailles de l´ Empire francais, Paris, 1840. — O. Merson, Andrieu, Grande Encyclopédie , II, 1045.

Source: Biographical dictionary of medallists; coin, gem, and seal-engravers, mint-masters, ancient and modern, with references to their works B.C. 500-A.D. 1900; compiled by L. Forrer, London 1904