The St. Louis Exhibition (Louisiana Purchase Centenary), 1904
Medium
Bronze, struck
Dimensions
Diameter: 2 in. (5.1 cm)
Classification
Medals and Plaquettes
Culture
French
Department
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of W. W. Nisbet, 1914
Accession Number
14.113.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
In 1904, French engraver Alexis Joseph Depaul crafted this intimate bronze medal to celebrate the St. Louis World's Fair, officially marking the centenary of Louisiana Purchase. Struck in gleaming bronze and measuring just 2 inches diameter, it captures the grandeur of the event through finely detailed reliefs. Depaulis, a master of the plaquette genre—small-scale sculptural medals popular in 19th- and early 20th-century Europeemployed precise chasing and striking techniques to evoke the fair's spirit of innovation and national pride. The Louisiana Purchase of 1803, when the United States acq...