3-016-764 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Turner Gold Medal, 1864. 'This medal...is interesting as part of the munificent public bequest of the great painter whose name and portrait are engraved thereon...The designs for the medal were made by Mr. D. Maclise, R.A...The obverse bears a portrait of Turner's strongly-marked profile...Around the head is the inscription, "Joseph Mallord William Turner, R.A., Nat. 1775, Ob. 1851." On the reverse there is [a] poetical design...A young painter, with pallet, brushes, and easel, leaning on a shield, lies among vine and laurel leaves, lost in an intoxication more delicious than that of wine or fame, contemplating a scene like that of the Bay of Naples, from which Phoebus Apollo is just retiring, with his glorious car in a blaze of inimitable effulgence. An Italian character is given by the vine leaves, the lizard on the shield, and a fragment of tessellated pavement in the foreground...the three primary colours which compose the rainbow, and from which all other colours and hues are derived, are further personified by three beautiful females - the three Graces of colour, we might call them - who from their heavenly arch intently watch the youthful genius. Above all is a small circlet of stars, emblematic of the immortal crown to be won'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.