Fine Portrait Medals
A VOLUME of photographs of medals which is introduced by Mr: G. F. Hill, the learned Keeper of Coins and Medals at the British Museum and the leading authority on the great medallists of the Italian Renaissance, and which moreover has on the title-page a speaking likeness of that accomplished artist and gentleman, the late Professor Lanteri, is surely worth attention. The writer of this notice had the good fortune many years ago to sit to Lanteri for a medal—which was a good like- ness and is an artistic treasure—and he has ever since taken a keen interest in the exquisite art of the medallist, which few practise nowadays. He can therefore affirm with confidence that Mr. Hill's high praise of Lady Harris's work is in no wise excessive. Lady Harris tells us that she was a pupil of Lanterrs, and that in the leisure moments of a busy life she has amused herself by making portrait medals of her friends and acquaintances, thus gradually forming the collection of 150 or 200 medals here reproduced. The portraits of the men whom one knows or remembers are true to life--such as those of Dr. Joachim or Sir Charles Walston, Sir Hubert Gough or Sir William Orpen—and it is safe to infer that Lady Harris has a gift for catching a likeness. The artistic merit of her work is unquestionably great. Her medals arc not merely small reliefs but true medals, simply planned, with the head filling most of the space within the inscription and kept as flat as possible, after the classic tradition upon which Lanteri used to insist. Lady Harris has had many distin- guished sitters, but she has also made portraits of many youths and children, and some of these are excellent. Inas- much as medals are easily portable and almost indestructible, they ought to be a favourite method of portraiture nowadays. Perhaps the charm and interest of Lady Harris's portrait medals will lead to a revival of this delightful art.
E. G. H.
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