102981 | GREAT BRITAIN & UNITED STATES. "Saint Gaudens/Eakins" bronze Medal.

102981  |  GREAT BRITAIN & UNITED STATES. "Saint-Gaudens/Eakins" bronze Medal. Issued 1988 (59mm, 114.49 g, 12h). By Leonard Baskin for the British Art Medal Society, and struck by Fattorini.

 

•SAINT–GAUDENS•, bust of Augustus Saint-Gaudens left, wearing frock coat // •EAKINS•, bust of Thomas Eakins left, wearing frock coat. Edge: Plain.

 

Attwood 54; The Medal 13, p. 128. Gem Mint State. Brassy-bronze surfaces, with a charming matte nature. A fairly scarce offering celebrating two of America's more celebrated artists, and with a total output of just 50 pieces.

 

Leonard Baskin (1922-2000) was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, studying sculpture in New York and then living for a spell in both Paris and Pisa. Upon returning to America, he began teaching at Smith College. About him and this medal, the workup in The Medal 13 (Autumn 1988) mentions that "...his rejection of abstraction and commitment to traditional modelling techniques was unusual amongst sculptors of the time, and has been retained throughout his career. He is now one of America's most acclaimed sculptors, and is also widely known as a printmaker and book illustrator. For ten years he lived in Devon, attracted there by his friendship with Ted Hughes whose poems he has illustrated. Thomas Eakins and Augustus Saint-Gaudens are amongst Baskin's personal heroes. The former was portrayed by the artist in the early 1960s in a maple-wood statuette and a copper relief, and he has produced two bronze reliefs entitled 'Homage to Augustus Saint-Gaudens'. These, and other, works by Baskin are reproduced in Irma B Jaffé's The Sculpture of Leonard Baskin (New York, 1980)."

 

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Upload: 17 March 2025.