FRANCE - FRANCE First Empire / Napoleon I (1804-1814). Medal, Premier grand prix de Rome en gravure de médailles et pierres fines en 1809, by E. Gatteaux, Frappe spéciale (SP) 1809-1819, Paris. Av. JEAN VARIN - MEDAL ENGRAVING. Bust on the right under a star; below, signature E. GATTEAUX 1819. Rv. Intaglio engraving: GRAVURE EN MÉDAILLES / GRAND PRIX / JACQUES-ÉDOUARD GATTEAUX/ 1809. Coll.768 (obverse); Gilt bronze - 21,83 g - 35,5 mm - 12 h PCGS SP Genuine Scratch-UNC Detail (50994192). Strong test mark on the edge and scratches on the reverse. Superb. Jacques-Édouard Gatteaux (1788-1881) presented the engraved portrait of Jean Varin to the Académie des Beaux-Arts on 17 August 1819 "to be given to the medal engravers who will win the grand prize". He gave a copper copy to the Bibliothèque royale, as a legal deposit, which was registered on 31 October 1820 under no. 524 [BnF, MMA, Ms75]. This medal was one of several already awarded for the various categories of the Grand Prix de Rome of the Académie des Beaux-Arts: for painting, Nicolas Poussin by Rambert Dumarest (1803); for architecture, Philibert de l'Orme by J.-E. Gatteaux (1814); for sculpture, Pierre Puget by J.-E. Gatteaux (1815); and for musical composition, Jean-Philippe Rameau by J.-E. Gatteaux (1816). This copy was probably presented to him by the Académie des Beaux-Arts, in recognition of his work, and recalls his first Grand Prix de Rome for engraving medals, won in 1809, on the subject "Mars followed by Victory", the plaster of which is kept at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts (shelf mark PRGM2). Gatteaux engraved another portrait of Varin, slightly different, for the medal of the Galerie métallique des grands hommes français of 1820.