# Temple Gold Medal

Joseph E. Temple Fund Gold Medal (defunct) was a prestigious art prize awarded by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts most years from 1883 to 1968. A Temple Medal recognized the best oil painting by an American artist shown in PAFA's annual exhibition. 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. Sometimes the medal-winning painting was purchased for PAFA's permanent collection.
The process for the first Temple Medal was a fiasco. To encourage American historical painting, PAFA added a $3,000 cash bonus to the 1883 gold medal if it went to a historical work. But the art 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). Trego sued PAFA to be named the gold medal winner and claim the cash bonus. After losing in a Philadelphia court, he took his appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which concurred with the lower court's ruling that PAFA's art jury had the right to issue awards as it saw fit. After 1883, no cash prizes accompanied Temple medals.
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. 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 PAFA's annual exhibition regardless of subject.
Famously, Thomas Eakins, who had been forced to resign as director of PAFA's school in 1886, accepted his 1904 award for Archbishop William Henry Elder 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.
William Glackens wryly changed the name of the figure painting that won him the 1924 award from Nude to Temple Gold Medal Nude.
By the 1930s, PAFA's annual exhibitions had acquired a reputation for being parochial and nepotistic. With the costs of transporting and insuring the works, they were also expensive. Beginning in 1954, PAFA's exhibitions became bi-annual. The last Temple Gold Medal was awarded to Helen Frankenthaler in 1968. Beginning in 1969, PAFA's annual exhibitions were dedicated exclusively to student work from its 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) | National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian | |
| 1884 (silver) | Thomas Hill | | Yosemite Valley: View from Bridal Veil Meadow | | Ex collection: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; Deaccessioned 1898 Auctioned at Bonham's San Francisco, November 20, 2011; Sold for $2,500. |
| 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 | Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts | PAFA board member (later president) Edward Hornor Coates bought the painting from the exhibition. His widow, poet Florence Earle Coates, donated it to PAFA in 1923. It may have been the inspiration for her 1909 poem, "Mid-Ocean." |
| 1886 | No exhibition | | | | |
| 1887 | Clifford Prevost Grayson | | A Fisherman's Family | | Exhibited: 1885 Paris Salon Ex collection: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; Deaccessioned 1898 |
| 1887 (silver) | T. Alexander Harrison | | The Wave | Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts | Exhibited: 1885 Paris Salon |
| 1888 | Charles Stanley Reinhart | | Washed Ashore | Corcoran Gallery of Art | Honorable Mention: 1887 Paris Salon Vincent van Gogh was an admirer of the painting. |
| 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 | | 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 | | Ex collection: 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 medal-winning group at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. |
| 1892 1st place | Henry S. Bisbing | | On the River Shore, Holland | | Bronze Medal: 1889 Exposition Universelle, Paris One of 3 works in Bisbing's medal-winning group at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. |
| 1892 (silver) 2nd place | George Inness | | Autumn Oaks | 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) | 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 | 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 | Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts | |
| 1898 | Edward Francis Rook | | Pearl Clouds, Moonlight | Cincinnati Art Museum | |
| 1898 | Wilton Lockwood | | The Violinist (Otto Roth) | Skibo Castle, Dornoch, 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) | 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 | | Archbishop William Henry Elder | Cincinnati Art Museum | |
| 1905 | J. Alden Weir | | The Green Bodice | Metropolitan Museum of Art | |
| 1906 | Eugene Paul Ullman | | Portrait of Madame Fisher | Indianapolis Museum of Art | |
| 1907 | Willard L. Metcalf | | The Golden Screen | 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) | | |
| 1911 | Richard E. Miller | | The Chinese Statuette | | |
| 1912 | Emil Carlsen | | The Open Sea | Addison Gallery of American Art | |
| 1913 | Frederick Frieseke | | Youth | | |
| 1914 | W. Elmer Schofield | | The Hill Country | Woodmere Art Museum, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia | |
| 1915 | Charles Webster Hawthorne | | Provincetown Fisherman | Indianapolis Museum of Art | |
| 1916 | Joseph Thurman Pearson Jr. | | On the Valley | | Auctioned at Sloan's, North Bethesda, Maryland, September 27, 1981; sold for $1,250. |
| 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 | Philadelphia Museum of Art | |
| 1920 | Ernest Lawson | | Ice-Bound Falls | Art Institute of Chicago | |
| 1921 | Leopold Seyffert | under copyright until 2026 | Lacquer Screen (The Model) | Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts | |
| 1922 | William Langson Lathrop | | October Evening | | |
| 1923 | Walter Ufer | | Sleep | 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. |
| 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 | University of Virginia Art Museum | |
| 1928 | James Ormsbee Chapin | under copyright until 2045 | George Marvin and His Daughter Edith | Dallas Museum of Art | |
| 1929 | Robert Henri | | The Wee Woman | | |
| 1930 | Arthur B. Carles | under copyright until 2022 | Still Life | | |
| 1931 | Alexander Brook | under copyright until 2050 | The Intruder | | 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 | Maier Museum of Art, Randolph College, Lynchburg, Virginia | |
| 1936 | Paul Starrett Sample | under copyright until 2044 | Miners Resting | Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska | |
| 1937 | Henry Lee McFee | under copyright until 2023 | Sleeping Black Girl | Los Angeles County Museum of Art | |
| 1938 | Eugene Speicher | under copyright until 2032 | Marianna | Whitney Museum of American Art | |
| 1939 | Henry McCarter | | The Pinnacle | | |
| 1940 | Morris Kantor | under copyright until 2044 | Lighthouse (Lighthouse, Cape Cod) | 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) | Art Institute of Chicago | |
| 1943 | Raphael Soyer | under copyright until 2057 | Waiting Room (Railroad Station Waiting Room) | Corcoran Gallery of Art | |
| 1944 | Franklin C. Watkins | under copyright until 2042 | Portrait of Thomas Raeburn White | Cleveland Museum of Art | |
| 1945 | Abraham Rattner | under copyright until 2048 | Kiosk | Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts | |
| 1946 | Gregorio Prestopino | under copyright until 2054 | Death of Snappy Collins | Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota | |
| 1947 | Arthur Osver | under copyright until 2076 | The Majestic Tenement | Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts | |
| 1948 | Eugene Ludins | under copyright until 2066 | The Valley | Woodstock Artists Association and Museum | |
| 1949 | Henry Koerner | under copyright until 2061 | Junkyard | Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | |
| 1950 | Harvey Dinnerstein | under copyright still alive | Noah Wolf | Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts | |
| 1951 | William Congdon | under copyright until 2068 | Venice #2 | | |
| 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-Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. |
| 1953 | Rico Lebrun | under copyright until 2034 | Figures on the Cross with Lantern | | |
| 1954 | John Marin (posthumous) | under copyright until 2023 | The Jersey Hills | | |
| 1955 | Student exhibition | | | | |
| 1956 | Ben Shahn | under copyright until 2039 | Chicago (Allegory) | Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth | Depicts Chicago's 1947 Hickman tenement fire, with the flames forming into a mythical beast. |
| 1957 | Student exhibition | | | | |
| 1958 | Philip Evergood | under copyright until 2043 | Threshold to Success | Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts | |
| 1959 | Student exhibition | | | | |
| 1960 | Lee Gatch | under copyright until 2038 | Fish Market | Newark Museum | |
| 1961 | Student exhibition | | | | |
| 1962 | Julian E. Levi | under copyright until 2052 | Orpheus in the Studio | Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts | |
| 1963 | Student exhibition | | | | |
| 1964 | Stuart Davis | under copyright until 2034 | Letter and His Ecol | Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts | |
| 1965 | Student exhibition | | | | |
| 1966 | George L.K. Morris | under copyright until 2045 | Elegy on the Pennsylvania Station, No. 1 | Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum | |
| 1967 | Student exhibition | | | | |
| 1968 | Helen Frankenthaler | under copyright until 2081 | Tobacco Landscape | | Third woman awarded a Temple Gold Medal. Last Temple Gold Medal awarded. |