Bourgeois has depicted Pierre Lescot (seated), Jean Goujon (at left), and Nicolas Poussin (at right) to represent the greatness of French architecture, sculpture, and painting, respectively. Behind the figures is a meticulously detailed rendering of the Louvre Palace courtyard façade built by Lescot in 1547-51, with reliefs by Goujon. Among the artists named on the obverse, David d’Angers designed medallions and Jean Warin was a medalist. Because of the high quality of the design, the Ministry of Fine Arts acquired it to be used as an award for artistic societies. This medal is a wonderfully sharp test strike of the obverse—might it have been produced for the artist himself?

 

Bourgeois studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and was an accomplished medalist of the Art Nouveau era.   Scarce.

 

This medal will appeal to collectors interested in the history of French art.

 

Extremely fine. Appealing silvery gray appearance. See pictures.

 

Artist: Louis Maximilien Bourgeois (1839-1902)

Title: Artibus Patriae (The Arts of the Country) (1887)

Material: silver-plated bronze

Size: 73 mm

Weight: 50 gr

Inscriptions:

Obverse: GOUJON. PIERRE LESCOT. POUSSIN/ G. DUPRE. PUGET. DAVID D’ANGERS. BARYE. JEAN PESNE. AUDRAN. HENRIQUEL DUPONT. CLOUET. EUGENE DELACROIX. INGRES. WARIN. PHILIBERT DELORME. J. COUSIN. MANSART; signed Max.lien BOURGEOIS

Reverse: none—uniface

Edge: Cornucopia, BRONZE

Mint: Monnaie de Paris

Reference: Leonard Forrer, Biographical Dictionary of Medallists, vol. 1, p. 238, illustrated p. 239

 

In the coming weeks I will be listing many Art Nouveau and Art Deco medals and plaquettes, from France, Belgium and Austria, which I have collected over the past twenty years. They are by the leading medalists of the period, and many are rare.