Yorkshire Fine Arts and Industrial Exhibition Medal, by John Bell (1811-1895)

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Yorkshire Fine Arts and Industrial Exhibition Medal

Designer: John Bell

Struck by Thomas Ottley (active 1852-1931)

1866

Bronze (?)

Source: The History of the Yorkshire Fine Art and Industrial Exhibition, York, following p. 363.

At the conclusion of the highly successful Yorkshire Fine Art and Industrial Exhibition, Bell's medal was "pronounced by competent judges, the best design produced for some time past." He is mentioned in the record of the event as the "fellow-citizen" who had previously "executed the Great Council Medal of 1851" (The History of the Yorkshire Fine Art and Industrial Exhibition, 341), and was probably the local landscape painter of that name who helped with the arrangement of paintings in the exhibition's art gallery (see Spier). [Commentary continues below.]

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As Simon Spier points out, the design is skilful and expresses civic pride: the face, for example, features tablets with tiny medallion profiles of York's best-known artists, William Etty (right) and John Flaxman (left), on either side, with full-length figures representing painting, music, engineering and so on standing around the circumference. Spiers points out that "the Muse of Architecture, at about 11 o’clock," just before the figure of Britannia, "holds a tablet showing the elevation and floor plan of the temporary structure erected to house the exhibition in the grounds of Bootham Asylum." On the obverse is a wreath of the White Roses of York, with the Civic and Ecclesiastical coats of arms linked to it at the lower edge.

Bibliography

The History of the Yorkshire Fine Art and Industrial Exhibition, York: Opened July 24th 1866-Closed October 31st, 1866. Compiled by the York Herald. Internet Archive. Contributed by Getty Research. Web. 28 July 2020.

Spier, Simon. "John Bell and the 1866 Yorkshire Fine Art and Industrial Exhibition Medal." York Museum Trust. Web. 28 July 2020.

"Thomas Ottley." Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951. University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011. Web. 28 July 2020.

Created 28 July 2020