World's Columbian Exposition Commemorative Presentation Medal
1892–94
Medium
Bronze
Dimensions
Diam.: 10.2 cm (4 in.)
Classification
medal
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
57149
Art Historical Context
Crafted by the renowned American sculptor Augustus Saintaudens between 1892 and 1894, this bronze commemorative medal honors the World's Columbian Exposition, the grand 1893 Chicago Fair. Celebrating the 400th of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas, the event drew over 27 million visitors to its dazzling "White City" of neoclassical architecture, showcasing American innovation and cultural ambition during the Gilded Age.-Gaudens, a master of Beaux-Arts realism celebrated for monuments like the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, created this 4-inch diameter medal as a prestigious presentati...
About the Artist
Augustus Saint-Gaudens · 1848–1907
Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907) was an Irish-born American sculptor widely regarded as the greatest American sculptor of the nineteenth century. Born in Dublin to a French father and Irish mother, he was brought to New York City as an infant. He trained as a cameo cutter, studied at the Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design, and then traveled to Paris, where he studied at the École de...