Baldwin's of St. James's
Auction 57 14 Apr 2021
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The Portland Collection, Commemorative Medals, Art: The Royal Academy of Arts, 'Turner's Medal', awarded in 1881 to Bryan Hook (1856-1925); gold medal, by Leonard Charles Wyon after designs by Daniel Maclise RA (1806-1870), bust of Turner l., in old age, rev. a youthful artist reclines before a land and sea-scape, seeking inspiration and watched over from above by the three Muses, wistful and loosely draped, edge engraved, MR B. HOOK. FOR THE BEST LANDSCAPE PAINTING. DECR 10TH 1881., 55mm., wt. 111.88gms. (BHM.2416, R3; Eimer 1466, Attwood, Wyon, pp. 417-418), matt surface, extremely fine though edge nick between Os of HOOK, an exceptionally rare award
*ex Stack's [Coin Galleries] Auction (18 July 2007), lot 2135.
Bryan Hook (1856-1925) was from an artistic family, the son of James Clarke Hook, RA (1819-1907) and brother of Allan James Hook (1853-1946). Bryan Hook was a naval, genre, portrait and animal painter and etcher and a painter of landscapes, for which subject he won this medal.
In 1856 the Royal Academy eventually received the sum of £20,000 from the will of J. M. W. Turner who had died in 1851. The Academy's Council Minutes record that it was agreed the funds should be used 'in conformity with the will of the late J. M. W. Turner' for 'a medal to be called 'Turner's medal' to be awarded to the best landscape painting at the Biennial Distribution'. E. H. Bailey submitted designs which were rejected, then William Mulready, William Dyce and Daniel Maclise were subsequently asked to submit their ideas for the medal. Maclise's design was chosen (the Academy still holds his original drawings, Luke Syson, Designs on Posterity: Drawings for Medals, 1994, p. 163, 18c). Maclise finished the designs by November 1859 and Leonard Wyon's impression of the medal was approved in December.
*ex Stack's [Coin Galleries] Auction (18 July 2007), lot 2135.
Bryan Hook (1856-1925) was from an artistic family, the son of James Clarke Hook, RA (1819-1907) and brother of Allan James Hook (1853-1946). Bryan Hook was a naval, genre, portrait and animal painter and etcher and a painter of landscapes, for which subject he won this medal.
In 1856 the Royal Academy eventually received the sum of £20,000 from the will of J. M. W. Turner who had died in 1851. The Academy's Council Minutes record that it was agreed the funds should be used 'in conformity with the will of the late J. M. W. Turner' for 'a medal to be called 'Turner's medal' to be awarded to the best landscape painting at the Biennial Distribution'. E. H. Bailey submitted designs which were rejected, then William Mulready, William Dyce and Daniel Maclise were subsequently asked to submit their ideas for the medal. Maclise's design was chosen (the Academy still holds his original drawings, Luke Syson, Designs on Posterity: Drawings for Medals, 1994, p. 163, 18c). Maclise finished the designs by November 1859 and Leonard Wyon's impression of the medal was approved in December.