Widener Gold Medal

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The George D. Widener Memorial Gold Medal was a prestigious sculpture prize awarded by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1913 to 1968. Established in 1912, it recognized the "most meritorious work of Sculpture modeled by an American citizen and shown in the Annual Exhibition." PAFA's annual exhibitions were open to all American sculptors, but an individual could be awarded the medal only once. Sculptors Paul Manship, Albin Polasek, Malvina Hoffman, Carl Paul Jennewein, Anna Hyatt Huntington, William Zorach and Leonard Baskin were among its recipients.

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George Dunton Widener had been a Philadelphia businessman and a director of PAFA. He and his son Harry died in 1912 aboard the RMS Titanic.

The Widener Gold Medal was retired in 1968. Beginning in 1969, PAFA devoted its annual exhibitions solely to work by students in its school.

List of Recipients

YearSculptorImageWorkMediumCollectionNotes
1913 Charles Grafly Head of Thomas Pollock Anshutz [1] bronzePennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
1914 Paul Manship Girl w duck Rittenhs Sq.jpg Duck Girl bronze Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia
1915 Albin Polasek Aspiration [2] [3] bronze Detroit Institute of Arts A seated female nude holding musical pipes and kissing a cherub.
1916 Edward McCartan The Spirit of the Woods [4] bronze"Welwyn" (Harold Pratt estate),
Glen Cove, Long Island, New York 		A nude female figure dancing with a baby.
Another example is at the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College.
1917 Attilio Piccirilli Piccirilli Flower of the Alps Int.Studio Aug1917 p.68.jpg The Flower of the AlpsmarbleA bronze version was auctioned at Sotheby's NY, October 2, 2015. [5]
1918 Albert Laessle Laessle AAA 11147.jpg Penguins [6] bronze Philadelphia Zoo,
West Fairmount Park, Philadelphia		Other examples are at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Brookgreen Gardens, [7] and elsewhere.
1919 Jess M. Lawson
(later Jess Lawson Peacey)		 Belgium 1914 by Jess M. Lawson.jpg Belgium, 1914First woman sculptor awarded the Widener Gold Medal.
Also awarded the 1918 Barnett Prize from the National Academy of Design.
1920 Malvina Hoffman The Offering, Malvina Hoffman - circa 1920, sculpture (14784628252).jpg The Offering [8] bronze Glenbow Museum,
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
1921 Evelyn Beatrice Longman The Future [9] [10] bronze Nashville Parthenon,
Centennial Park, Nashville, Tennessee		A standing female nude.
Also awarded the 1918 Shaw Prize from the National Academy of Design, and the 1919 French Gold Medal from the Art Institute of Chicago.
1922 Beatrice Fenton Architect and engineer (1934) (14761539021).jpg A Sea-Weed Fountain [11] bronzeHorticultural Hall,
West Fairmount Park, Philadelphia
Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture25.jpg
Another example is at Brookgreen Gardens.
1923 Brenda Putnam Sea Horse Sundial [12] [13] bronzePrivate collection, Williamstown, MassachusettsAlso awarded the 1922 Barnett Prize from the National Academy of Design.
1924 Arthur Lee Volupté [14] [15]
Voluptuousness		marble Metropolitan Museum of Art Other examples are at the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, and in private collections.
1925 Walker Hancock Toivo [16] [17] bronze St. Louis Art Museum A bust of a Finnish youth.
Another bronze example is at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
1926 Adolph Alexander Weinman Narcissus [18] [19] bronze Norton Museum of Art,
West Palm Beach, Florida		A marble example is at Brookgreen Gardens. [20]
1927 Katherine Lane Weems Narcisse Noir [21] [22]
Black Whippet		bronze Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Other examples are at the Reading Public Museum and the Museum of Science (Boston).
1928 Albert Stewart Silver King Polar Bear [23] silvered bronze Metropolitan Museum of Art Also awarded the 1927 Speyer Prize from the National Academy of Design.
1929Bruce MooreBlack Panther [24] [25] bronze Smithsonian American Art Museum Other examples are at the Whitney Museum, and elsewhere.
1930 Mitchell Fields Naomi statue.jpg Torso (Naomi}marbleWilfrid Israel Museum,
Hazorea, Israel
1931 Gladys Edgerly Bates Eve
1932 Carl Paul Jennewein Statue en bronze surplombant l'edifice.jpg Indian and Eagle [26]
Monument to the American Dead		gilded bronze
plaster		Tours War Memorial,
Tours, France
Memorial .jpg
The sculpture is the centerpiece of a fountain.
Jennewein's plaster model is at the Pérez Art Museum Miami. [27]
Another bronze example is at Brookgreen Gardens. [28]
1933 John Gregory Lyric Love [29] [30]
Monument for an Aviator's Grave		Carrara marbleArmstrong Browning Library,
Baylor University, Waco, Texas		A winged female figure, partially nude.
1934 Concetta Scaravaglione Mother and Child [31] plaster Virginia Museum of Fine Arts,
Richmond, Virginia
1935 Heinz Warneke Wild Boars [32] marble Smithsonian American Art Museum Another marble example is unlocated.
1936 Vincent Glinsky The Awakening [33] [34] marble Brookgreen Gardens A female nude reclining on a rock.
1937 Anna Hyatt Huntington Greyhounds Playing [35] bronzePennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
1938 Anthony de Francisci Gilda, the Artist's Daughter [36] [37] plaster Smithsonian American Art Museum Bas relief head.
1939Harry RosinEugenie Philadelphia Museum of Art Head of a Tahitian model.
1940Carl L. Schmitz Relief on FTC - closeup.jpg (Model for) Foreign Trade [38] [39] painted plaster Smithsonian American Art Museum
Relief on FTC.JPG
Foreign Trade is a limestone relief panel on the exterior of the Federal Trade Commission Building, Washington, D.C. [40]
1941 Dorothea Greenbaum Tiny [41] bronze Institute for Advanced Study,
Princeton, New Jersey		A standing female nude.
1942Janet de CouxDeborah's Song
1943Henry Kreis [42] Birth of Nation Fairmount Park.JPG The Birth of a Nation [43] limestoneEllen Phillips Samuel Memorial Sculpture Garden,
Fairmount Park, Kelly Drive, Philadelphia		Located along the east bank of the Schuylkill River.
1944 Cecil de Blaquiere Howard [44] Cecil Howard - American Youth 1944.jpg American YouthPlasterPrivate collectionCecil Howard posing in US Army uniform in his New York studio in 1944, before his departure for London with the OSS. He stands by his daughter Line's portrait bust and "American Youth," also entitled "The Sacrifice," his sculpture symbolyzing the American Army's entry into war.
1945 José de Creeft Head of Rachmaninoff [45] [46] leadPennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
1946Waldemar RaemischPietà
1947Adolph DiodaCrucifix
1948Herbert Lewis KammererHead and Shoulders with Bent Arms
1949 Mitzi Solomon
(later Mitzi Cunliffe)		A Voluptuous Objectpink marble
1950Hugo RobusDawn [47] plasterFonderia Battaglia, Milan, Italy A life-size female nude yawning and stretching.
Bronze examples are in private collections.
1951 Oronzio Maldarelli Bianca 2 Oronzio Maldarelli.jpg Bianca, No. 2 [48] bronze Metropolitan Museum of Art Other examples are at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.
1952 Jacques Lipchitz Lipshitz PMA.JPG Prometheus Strangling the Vulture [49] bronze Philadelphia Museum of Art PMA bought Lipchitz's plaster model, and commissioned him to cast it in bronze, 1953.
Another example is at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.
1953Anthony LauckMonk at Prayer [50] limestone Butler Institute of American Art,
Youngstown, Ohio		Rev. Lauck was a Roman Catholic priest and an art instructor at the University of Notre Dame. [51]
1954Koren Der HarootianDescent from the Cross
1955Student exhibition
1956 Theodore Roszak Hound of Heaven [52] [53] steel with nickel and copper Museum of Modern Art, New York City
1957Student exhibition
1958 Kahlil Gibran Voice in the Wilderness [54] [55] welded ironPennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
1959Student exhibition
1960 Lee Bontecou Bird [56] bronze Chase Manhattan Bank, New York City
1961Student exhibition
1962 William Zorach Puma Azalea Garden Philly.JPG Puma [57] plasterUniversity Gallery, University of Delaware,
Newark, Delaware		Other examples in bronze and granite are at Fairmount Park, Philadelphia; National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson Hole, Wyoming; and in private collections.
1963Student exhibition
1964 Geraldine McCullough [58] PhoenixOther works include: Martin Luther King, Jr sculpture in Springfield, IL, Pathfinder in Oak Park, IL, and Our King, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Chicago, IL
1965Student exhibition
1966 Leonard Baskin Seated Woman [59] [60] carved oakPennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
1967Student exhibition
1968 Seymour Lipton Gateway [61] nickel and monel metal National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Thomas Anshutz, from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
  2. ↑ Aspiration, from SIRIS.
  3. ↑ Aspiration, from Albin Polacek Museum & Sculpture Garden.
  4. ↑ Spirit of the Woods, from Christie's, 24 May 2007, Lot 8.
  5. ↑ Flower of the Alps, from Sotheby's, 2 October 2015, Lot 75.
  6. ↑ Penguins, from SIRIS.
  7. ↑ Robin R. Salmon, Sculpture of Brookgreen Gardens.
  8. ↑ The Offering, from SIRIS.
  9. ↑ The Future, from SIRIS.
  10. ↑ The Future
  11. ↑ Seaweed Fountain, from SIRIS.
  12. ↑ Sea Horse Sundial, from SIRIS.
  13. ↑ Sea Horse Sundial is illustrated on p. 14: Ferargil Galleries, Sculpture for the Garden, exhibition catalogue (no date). from Frick Art Reference Library.
  14. ↑ Volupte, from SIRIS.
  15. ↑ Volupté, from Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  16. ↑ Toivo, from SIRIS.
  17. ↑ Toivo, from Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
  18. ↑ Narcissus, from SIRIS.
  19. ↑ Narcissus, from Charleston Renaissance Gallery.
  20. ↑ Narcissus, from SIRIS.
  21. ↑ Narcisse Noir, from SIRIS.
  22. ↑ Narcisse Noir, from Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
  23. ↑ Silver King, from Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  24. ↑ Black Panther, from SIRIS.
  25. ↑ Black Panther, from Smithsonian American Art Museum.
  26. ↑ Tours War Memorial, from SIRIS.
  27. ↑ Model for Tours War Memorial, from SIRIS.
  28. ↑ Indian and Eagle, from Brookgreen Collection.
  29. ↑ Lyric Love, from SIRIS.
  30. ↑ Lyric Love (scroll down for image), from Armstrong Browning Library, Baylor University.
  31. ↑ Mother and Child, from SIRIS.
  32. ↑ "Wild Boars". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved February 24, 2014.
  33. ↑ The Awakening, from SIRIS.
  34. ↑ "The Awakening," cover, National Sculpture Review, Spring 1968.
  35. ↑ Greyhounds Playing, from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
  36. ↑ The Artist's Daughter Gilda, from SIRIS.
  37. ↑ Gilda, the Artist's Daughter, from Smithsonian American Art Museum.
  38. ↑ Foreign Trade, from SIRIS.
  39. ↑ Foreign Trade, from Smithsonian American Art Museum.
  40. ↑ Foreign Trade, from SIRIS.
  41. ↑ Tiny, from SIRIS.
  42. ↑ The American Catholic Who's Who, Volume 7 By Georgina Pell Curtis, Benedict Elder
  43. ↑ The Birth of a Nation, from SIRIS.
  44. ↑ National Sculpture Review, vol. 5, number 3, fall 1956, p.6.
    Page en the french Wikipedia : Cecil Howard
  45. ↑ Rachmaninoff, from SIRIS.
  46. ↑ Rachmaninoff, from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
  47. ↑ Dawn, from SIRIS.
  48. ↑ Bianca II, from SIRIS.
  49. ↑ Prometheus Strangling the Vulture, from SIRIS.
  50. ↑ Monk at Prayer, from SIRIS.
  51. ↑ Anthony Lauck Papers, from University of Notre Dame.
  52. ↑ Hound of Heaven, from SIRIS.
  53. ↑ Hound of Heaven from TheodoreRoszak.com
  54. ↑ Voice in the Wilderness, from SIRIS.
  55. ↑ Voice in the Wilderness, from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
  56. ↑ Bird, from SIRIS.
  57. ↑ Puma, from SIRIS.
  58. ↑ Geraldine McCullough, 1917–2008
  59. ↑ Seated Woman, from SIRIS.
  60. ↑ Seated Woman, from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
  61. ↑ Gateway, from SIRIS.
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