A medallist or medalist (see spelling differences) is an artist who designs medals, plaquettes, badges, coins and similar small works in relief in metal. Art medals are a well-known and highly collected form of small bronze sculpture, most often in bronze, and are considered a form of exonumia. "Medalist/medallist" is confusingly the same word used in sport and other areas (but not usually in military contexts) for the winner of a medal as an award. Medallists very often also design, or produce the dies for coins as well. In modern times medallists are mostly primarily sculptors of larger works, but in the past the number of medals and coins produced were sufficient to allow specialists who spent most of their career producing them. Medallists are also often confusingly referred to as "engravers" in reference works, referring to the "engraving" of dies, although this is often in fact not the technique used; however many also worked in engraving the technique in printmaking.
Art medals have been produced since the late Renaissance period, and, after some classical precedents and Late Medieval revivals, the form was essentially invented by Pisanello, who is credited with the first portrait medal, which has remained a very popular type. He cast them like bronze sculptures, rather than minting them like coins.
An incomplete list, biased towards the 19th-century onwards; see also Category:Medallists. (Note: Where an artist is best known by other than his first given name, the commonly used name is highlighted in boldface.)
Paul Niclausse (1879–1958) was a French sculptor, most famous for his art deco medals cast in bronze.
Christian Gobrecht was the third Chief Engraver of the United States Mint from 1840 until his death in 1844. He was responsible for designing the famous "Seated Liberty" designs, which were in turn the direct inspiration for the design of the Trade Dollar. He designed the Gobrecht Dollar, which was struck in small quantities from 1836 to 1838 and later inspired the Flying Eagle cent. He also designed the obverse sides for the Liberty head Quarter Eagle, Half Eagle, and Eagle gold coins, as well as the "braided hair" type Half cent and Large cent coins.
René Baudichon was a French sculptor and medallist. The artist was born in Tours, France, studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in his native town, and graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
Jean Auguste Barre was a French sculptor and medalist. Born in Paris, he was trained by his father Jean-Jacques Barre (1793–1855), a medalist. In 1879, he succeeded his brother Jean-Auguste Barre as the 19th Chief engraver of the Monnaie de Paris, though he held the position for only one year.
Lea Fredrika Ahlborn was a Swedish artist and medallist. She was a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts and the first woman to be appointed royal printmaker. The position of royal printmaker was counted as a public office, and thereby made her the first female official or civil servant in Sweden.
Jean Varin or Warin was a French sculptor and engraver who made important innovations in the process of minting coins.
Gustave Frédéric Michel was a French sculptor, and medallist, according to Marina Warner "one of the most famous sculptors of the first decades of this (twentieth) century in France," although virtually unknown today. He also taught sculpture; among his pupils was the American Edith Howland.
Jean-Pierre Montagny was a French medallist and coiner, one of the most notable such figures in the 19th-century Monnaie de Paris.
Charles Pillet was a French sculptor and engraver.
John Sigismund Tanner was an engraver of the Kingdom of Great Britain, making dies for coins and medals.
Romain-Vincent Jeuffroy was a French gemstone engraver and medalist. He was active before and during the French Revolution and the First French Empire, and made many medals for Napoleon.
Thomas Halliday was an English coin and medal engraver associated with the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists.
Charles-Jean-François Chéron (1635–1698), often known as François Chéron, was a French goldsmith, medallist, and painter active in Rome and Paris; his cousin was the noted painter and poet Élisabeth Sophie Chéron. Chéron was born in Lunéville, where his father, Jean-Charles Chéron, was a jeweller and engraver to Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine. The younger Chéron moved to Rome in 1655 to help produce works for the Papal Mint. During his time in Rome, Chéron created medals of Pope Clement IX and Pope Clement X, Christina of Sweden, and Louis XIV of France (1672). In 1675, he was summoned to Paris by Louis XIV, and enrolled in the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in the subsequent year. His academy reception piece consisted of portrait medals of Charles Le Brun and others, with later work including a fine medal of Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Chéron was employed at the Medal Mint for 12 years, where he produced medals upon a wide variety of subjects and occasions. He died in Paris.
Alphonse Michaux (1860–1928) was a Belgian coin engraver and medalist.
Leonard Forrer or Leonhard Forrer was a Swiss-born numismatist and coin dealer. He was later naturalised as a British subject.
Christian Fueter was a Swiss medalist and mint-master at Bern from 1792 to 1837.
Joseph-Pierre Braemt was a Belgian medalist and coin designer.
Harald Conradsen was a Danish sculptor and medallist. He was chief medallist at the Royal Mint from 1873 to 1901. Other works by Conradsen include the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts' Eckersberg Medal and the University of Copenhagen's gold medal.
Rambert Dumarest was a French engraver and medallist.
Joseph Moore was a British medallist.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: location (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)