Temple Gold Medal

Temple Gold Medal Nude (1924) by William Glackens. Winner of the 1924 Temple Gold Medal.

Joseph E. Temple Fund Gold Medal (defunct) was a prestigious art prize awarded for the best oil painting by an American artist submitted to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts's annual exhibition. Temple medals were awarded most years from 1883 to 1968. Recipients included James Whistler, John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, Robert Henri and Edward Hopper.

History

The medal was named for Philadelphia merchant Joseph E. Temple (1811–1880), a patron of the arts and PAFA Board member, whose bequest of $51,000 funded the awards.

Any American artist was welcome to submit works for PAFA's annual exhibitions. Juries in painting and sculpture, composed of PAFA faculty and invited artists, evaluated hundreds (and later thousands) of submissions and chose those for exhibition. The Painters' Jury of Selection also chose the medal winners in painting. An artist could be awarded a Temple medal only once.

In 1883, the first year of the Temple medals, the jury could not agree on a gold medal recipient. A silver medal would have been awarded to William B. T. Trego for The March to Valley Forge, but he refused to accept it. Trego argued that if only one Temple medal was awarded it should be a gold, not a silver (which implied second place).^[1]

From 1884 to 1889, a gold medal was awarded for the best figure painting and a silver medal for the best landscape or marine painting. But the jury ignored the rules in 1890, awarding a landscape-with-cattle painting the gold medal.^{[lower-alpha 1]} In 1891 and 1892, a gold medal was awarded for the best painting regardless of subject, and a silver for the second-best. No second-place medals were awarded after 1892. From 1893 to 1899, two gold medals were awarded each year. Beginning in 1900, a single gold medal was awarded for the best painting in the annual exhibition regardless of subject.^[3]

Sometimes the medal-winning painting was purchased for PAFA's collection. Unlike many art awards, a Temple medal was not accompanied by a cash prize.

Famously, Thomas Eakins, who had been forced to resign as director of PAFA's school in 1886, accepted his 1904 award by declaring, ”I think you’ve got a heap of impudence to give me a medal." He then rode off on a bicycle to the Philadelphia Mint, where he sold the gold medal for its melt-down value.^[4]

William Glackens wryly changed the name of the figure painting that won him the 1924 award to The Temple Gold Medal Nude.^[5]

By the 1930s, PAFA's annual exhibitions had acquired a reputation for being parochial and nepotistic.^{[lower-alpha 2]} With the costs of transporting and insuring the works, they were also expensive. Beginning in 1954, the exhibitions became bi-annual. The last Temple Gold Medal was awarded to Helen Frankenthaler in 1968. Beginning in 1969, the annual exhibitions were dedicated exclusively to student work from PAFA's school.

List of Recipients

Year	Artist	Image	Work	Collection	Notes
1883 (silver)	William B. T. Trego		The March to Valley Forge	Museum of the American Revolution, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Trego refused the silver medal
1884	George W. Maynard		Portrait of Francis Davis Millet (Dressed as a War Correspondent)[7]	National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian
1884 (silver)	Thomas Hill		Yosemite Valley: View from Bridal Veil Meadow		Auctioned at Bonham's San Francisco, November 20, 2011; sold for $2,500.[8]
1885	Charles Sprague Pearce		Peines de Coeur (Troubles of the Heart)	Virginia Museum of Fine Arts	Exhibited: 1885 Paris Salon
1885 (silver)	William Trost Richards		Old Ocean's Gray and Melancholy Waste[9]	Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
1886	No exhibition
1887	Clifford Prevost Grayson		A Fisherman's Family	ex-coll. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts	Exhibited: 1885 Paris Salon
1887 (silver)	T. Alexander Harrison		The Wave	Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts	Exhibited: 1885 Paris Salon
1888	Charles Stanley Reinhart		Washed Ashore[lower-alpha 3]	Corcoran Gallery of Art	Honorable Mention: 1887 Paris Salon
1888 (silver)	Howard Russell Butler		Les ramasseurs de varech (The Seaweed Gatherers)	Smithsonian American Art Museum	Honorable Mention: 1886 Paris Salon
1889	Anna Elizabeth Klumpke		In the Wash House	Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts	Exhibited: 1888 Paris Salon First woman awarded a Temple Gold Medal.
1889 (silver)	Arthur Parton		Winter on the Hudson[11]		Honorable Mention: 1889 Paris Exposition
1890	William Henry Howe		Return of the Herd at Evening, Uplands of Normandy		Exhibited: 1887 Paris Salon Howe in his Paris studio with Return of the Herd at Evening.
1890 (silver)	Edward Emerson Simmons		St. Ives's Bay, Cornwall at Sunset, Looking East[12]	Mariners' Museum, Newport News, Virginia
1891 1st place	Abbott H. Thayer		Winged Figure	Art Institute of Chicago
1891 (silver) 2nd place	Kenyon Cox		Portrait of a Lady (The Artist's Wife)	Smithsonian American Art Museum	One of 13 works in Cox's bronze-medal-winning group at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.
1892 1st place	Henry S. Bisbing		On the River Shore, Holland[13]		Bronze Medal: 1889 Exposition Universelle, Paris One of 3 works in Bisbing's silver-medal-winning group at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.
1892 (silver) 2nd place	George Inness		Autumn Oaks[14][15]	Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, Texas
1893	No exhibition
1894	John Singer Sargent		Portrait of Ellen Terry as Lady MacBeth	Tate Britain
1894	James Abbott McNeill Whistler		Arrangement in Black: Lady in the Yellow Buskin (Lady Archibald Campbell)[16]	Philadelphia Museum of Art
1895	Edmund C. Tarbell		Arrangement in Pink and Gray (Afternoon Tea)	Worcester Art Museum
1895	John H. Twachtman		Sailing in the Mist	Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts	Twachtman painted this following the death of his 8-year-old daughter Elsie.
1896	Gari Melchers		The Family		A Melchers painting of this title is in the Old National Gallery in Berlin, Germany.
1896	J. Humphreys Johnston		Le Domino Rose[17]	Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
1897	John White Alexander		Isabella and the Pot of Basil	Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
1897	George de Forest Brush		Mother and Child[18]	Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
1898	Edward F. Rook		Pearl Clouds, Moonlight[19]	Cincinnati Art Museum
1898	Wilton Lockwood		The Violinist (Otto Roth)[20]	Skibo Castle, Scotland	3rd Prize: 1898 Carnegie Institute Owned by Andrew Carnegie in 1907.
1899	Childe Hassam		Pont Royal, Paris	Cincinnati Art Museum
1899	Joseph de Camp		Woman Drying Her Hair	Cincinnati Art Museum
1900	Cecilia Beaux		Mother and Daughter (Mrs. Clement Griscom and Frances C. Griscom)	Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts	Second woman awarded a Temple Gold Medal. 1st Prize: 1899 Carnegie Institute Gold Medal: 1900 Paris Exposition
1901	William Merritt Chase		Portrait of a Lady with a Rose (Miss M. S. Lukens)[21]	Private collection
1902	Winslow Homer		A Northeaster	Metropolitan Museum of Art
1903	Edward Redfield	under copyright until 2035	A Winter Evening	Private collection	Appraised on Antiques Roadshow, Air date: September 22, 2014.
1904	Thomas Eakins		Portrait of Archbishop William Henry Elder	Cincinnati Art Museum
1905	J. Alden Weir		The Green Bodice[22]	Metropolitan Museum of Art
1906	Eugene Paul Ullman	under copyright until 2023	Portrait of Madame Fisher[23]	Indianapolis Museum of Art
1907	Willard L. Metcalf		The Golden Screen[24]	Private collection
1908	Frank Weston Benson		Portrait of My Daughters	Worcester Art Museum
1909	Frederic Porter Vinton		Portrait of Carroll D. Wright, President of Clark College	Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts
1910	Howard Gardiner Cushing		Portrait of the Artist's Wife (Ethel Cochrane Cushing)[25]
1911	Richard E. Miller		The Chinese Statuette[26]
1912	Emil Carlsen		Open Sea[27]	Addison Gallery of American Art
1913	Frederick Frieseke		Youth[28]
1914	W. Elmer Schofield		The Hill Country[29]	Woodmere Art Museum, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia
1915	Charles Webster Hawthorne		Provincetown Fisherman	Indianapolis Museum of Art
1916	Joseph T. Pearson, Jr.	under copyright until 2021	In the Valley[30]		Auctioned at Sloan's, North Bethesda, Maryland, September 27, 1981; sold for $1,250.[31]
1917	George Bellows		A Day in June	Detroit Institute of Arts
1918	George Luks		Houston Street	St. Louis Art Museum
1919	Daniel Garber	under copyright until 2028	The Orchard Window[32]	Philadelphia Museum of Art
1920	Ernest Lawson		Ice-Bound Falls[33]	Art Institute of Chicago
1921	Leopold Seyffert	under copyright until 2026	Lacquer Screen (The Model)[34]	Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
1922	William Langson Lathrop		October Evening
1923	Walter Ufer		Sleep[35]	National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
1924	William Glackens		Temple Gold Medal Nude	Private collection	Auctioned at Sotheby's New York, May 19, 2011; sold for $254,500.[5]
1925	Clifford Addams		Washington Square
1926	Hayley Lever	under copyright until 2028	The Harbor
1927	Leon Kroll	under copyright until 2044	My Wife's Family[36]	University of Virginia Art Museum
1928	James Ormsbee Chapin	under copyright until 2045	George Marvin and His Daughter Edith[37]	Dallas Museum of Art
1929	Robert Henri		The Wee Woman[38]
1930	Arthur B. Carles	under copyright until 2022	Still Life
1931	Alexander Brook	under copyright until 2050	The Intruder[39]		The intruder in the still life is a whimsical mouse.
1932	Paul Bartlett	under copyright until 2035	The Sand Barge
1933	S. Walter Norris	copyright?	Pool at Ilk
1934	Yasuo Kuniyoshi	under copyright until 2023	Fruit on Table
1935	Edward Hopper	under copyright until 2037	Mrs. Scott's House[40]	Maier Museum of Art, Randolph College, Lynchburg, Virginia
1936	Paul Starrett Sample	under copyright until 2044	Miners Resting[41]	Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska
1937	Henry Lee McFee	under copyright until 2023	Sleeping Black Girl[42]	Los Angeles County Museum of Art
1938	Eugene Speicher	under copyright until 2032	Marianna[43]	Whitney Museum of American Art
1939	Henry McCarter		The Pinnacle[44]
1940	Morris Kantor	under copyright until 2044	Lighthouse (Lighthouse, Cape Cod)[45]	Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
1941	Max Weber	under copyright until 2031	Reading	Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
1942	Ivan Albright	under copyright until 2053	That Which I Should Have Done I Did Not Do (The Door)[46]	Art Institute of Chicago
1943	Raphael Soyer	under copyright until 2057	Waiting Room (Railroad Station Waiting Room)[47]	Corcoran Gallery of Art
1944	Franklin C. Watkins	under copyright until 2042	Portrait of Thomas Raeburn White[48]	Cleveland Museum of Art
1945	Abraham Rattner	under copyright until 2048	Kiosk[49]	Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
1946	Gregorio Prestopino	under copyright until 2054	Death of Snappy Collins[50]	Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
1947	Arthur Osver	under copyright until 2076	The Majestic Tenement[51]	Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
1948	Eugene Ludins	under copyright until 2066	The Valley[52]	Woodstock Artists Association and Museum
1949	Henry Koerner	under copyright until 2061	Junkyard[53]	Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1950	Harvey Dinnerstein	under copyright still alive	Noah Wolf[54]	Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
1951	William Congdon	under copyright until 2068	Venice #2[55]
1952	O. Louis Guglielmi	under copyright until 2026	New York 21	Federal Reserve Art Collection, Washington, D.C.	In 2010, this hung in the office of then-Chairman Ben Bernanke.[56]
1953	Rico Lebrun	under copyright until 2034	Figures on the Cross with Lantern
1954	John Marin (posthumous)	under copyright until 2023	The Jersey Hills[57]
1955	No exhibition
1956	Ben Shahn	under copyright until 2039	Chicago (Allegory)[58]	Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth	Depicts Chicago's 1947 Hickman tenement fire, with the flames forming into a mythical beast.
1957	No exhibition
1958	Philip Evergood	under copyright until 2043	Threshold to Success[59]	Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
1959	No exhibition
1960	Lee Gatch	under copyright until 2038	Fish Market	Newark Museum
1961	No exhibition
1962	Julian E. Levi	under copyright until 2052	Orpheus in the Studio[60]	Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
1963	No exhibition
1964	Stuart Davis	under copyright until 2034	Letter and His Ecol[61]	Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
1965	No exhibition
1966	George L.K. Morris	under copyright until 2045	Elegy on the Pennsylvania Station, No. 1	Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1967	No exhibition
1968	Helen Frankenthaler	under copyright until 2081	Tobacco Landscape		Third woman awarded a Temple Gold Medal. Last Temple Gold Medal awarded.

See also

• Beck Gold Medal
• Mary Smith Prize
• Widener Gold Medal

Notes

1. "[T]hese cattle pictures of Mr. Howe are admirable, and they are certainly among the most satisfying things exhibited here, but the gold medal was offered for 'the best figure picture by an American artist,' and these are not figure pictures at all, and it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the committee has made another mistake in awarding this medal in this way." — L. W. M. [Leslie W. Miller]^[2]
2. Art columnist Jane Richter complained that more than 60% of the 258 paintings in the 1937 exhibition had been by members of the selection jury or by invited artists. While acknowledging the value of having "name" artists, she argued that PAFA needed to choose: make future exhibitions truly open-to-all or make them by-invitation-only.^[6]
3. "In Harper’s Weekly I found an illustration by Reinhart, by far the best I’ve seen by him up to now, Washed Ashore. A body has been washed up, a man is kneeling beside it to see who it is, a few fishermen and women give information about the shipwreck victim to a gendarme. So it looks somewhat like Victim of a Shipwreck that you have, but the drawing by R. has something of [Félix] Régamey, for example. It’s a very fine print." — Vincent van Gogh.^[10]

References

1. "Fifty-Fifth Exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy," American Architect and Building News, December 13, 1884.
2. "The Sixtieth Exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy," The American: A National Journal, Volume 19, (American Company, 1889), p. 319.
3. "Honors Awarded by the Temple Fund," Catalogue of the Annual Exhibition, (Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1919), pp. 8-9.
4. "Biography of Thomas Eakins," Philadelphia Museum of Art.
5. Temple Gold Medal Nude, from Sotheby's NY.
6. Philadelphia Art News, January 31, 1938.
7. Francis Davis Millet, from National Portrait Gallery.
8. Yosemite Valley: View from Bridal Veil Meadows, from Blouin Art Sales Index.
9. Old Ocean's Gray and Melancholy Waste, from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
10. Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard, 25 May 1883..
11. Winter on the Hudson
12. Looking East at Sunset, St. Ives Bay, from SIRIS.
13. "Bisbing's Great Work," Philadelphia Item, February 14, 1892.
14. Autumn Oaks, from Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum.
15. Autumn Oaks, from SIRIS.
16. Arrangement in Black, from Philadelphia Museum of Art.
17. Le Domino Rose, from Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
18. Mother and Child, from PAFA.
19. Pearl Clouds, Moonlight, Brush & Pencil, August 1898, p. 230.
20. The Violinist (Otto Roth), from Studio International, Volume 41, (London: National Magazine Company, 1907), p. 266.
21. Lady with a Rose, from Ronald G. Pisano, William Merritt Chase: Portraits in Oil, (Yale University Press, 2007), p. 174.
22. The Green Bodice, from Metropolitan Museum of Art.
23. Madame Fisher, from Indiana Museum of Art.
24. The Golden Screen, from WikiArt.
25. Ethel Cochrane Cushing, from Art History Reference.
26. The Chinese Statuette
27. Open Sea, from EmilCarlsen.org
28. Youth
29. The Hill Country
30. In the Valley, from The American Magazine of Art, March 1916, p. 180.
31. In the Valley, from Blouin's Art Sales Index.
32. The Orchard Window, from Philadelphia Museum of Art.
33. Ice-Bound Falls, from Art Institute of Chicago.
34. Lacquer Screen, from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
35. Sleep
36. My Wife's Family
37. George Marvin and His Daughter Edith, from Mutual Art.
38. The Wee Woman, from Archives of American Art, Smithsonian.
39. The Intruder
40. Mrs. Scott's House, from Maier Museum of Art.
41. Miners Resting, from Sheldon Museum of Art.
42. Sleeping Black Girl, from SIRIS.
43. Marianna, from Whitney Museum.
44. "Philadelphians Win Art Awards," The Lewiston Daily Sun, February 7, 1939.
45. Lighthouse, Cape Cod, from Annex Galleries.
46. That Which I Should Have Done, from Art Institute of Chicago.
47. Railroad Station Waiting Room, from Corcoran Gallery of Art.
48. Portrait of Thomas Raeburn White, from Cleveland Museum of Art.
49. Kiosk, from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
50. Death of Snappy Collins, from Walker Art Center.
51. Majestic Tenement, from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
52. The Valley, from Woodstock Artists Association.
53. Junkyard, from Carnegie Museum of Art.
54. Noah Wolf, from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
55. Venice #2
56. Mary Anne Goley, "What Fed Chiefs Like," The Wall Street Journal, March 16, 2010.
57. Jersey Hills
58. Allegory, from Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
59. Threshold to Success, from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
60. Orpheus in the Studio, from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
61. Letter and His Ecol, from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.