BRITISH HISTORICAL MEDALS, Royal Academy of Arts [1768], a gold award medal by T. Pingo after G.B. Cipriani and E. Penny, laureate bust of George III right, rev. Minerva seated beside a young artist, to whom she indicates a temple upon a hill at left, edge named (Given to George Dawe, for the Best Historical Picture, 1803), 55mm, 106.12g (Eimer 42; BHM 132; E 723). Extremely fine and extremely rare; in a fitted case £4,000-5,000

Provenance: From the recipient to his sister, Caroline Dawe; thence to Caroline’s son, Sir James Prendergast, GCMG (1826-1921), Chief Justice of New Zealand; acquired by the NZAFA through the Prendergast estate, 1921.

George Dawe, RA (1781-1829), born in Brewer street, Mayfair, was the eldest son of Philip Dawe, an artist and engraver who had worked with William Hogarth. Dawe entered the Royal Academy Schools in March 1794, becoming an associate in November 1809 and an academician in February 1814. Initially a painter of classical scenes, he sought portrait commissions and enjoyed the patronage of the Duke and Duchess of Kent, Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold. In 1819 he travelled with the Kents through Europe, painting portraits of military staff and diplomats. He came to the attention of Czar Alexander I, who commissioned him to paint the portraits of senior Russian military staff who had successfully fought Napoleon. Dawe moved to St Petersburg and, from 1822 to 1828, painted over 300 portraits for the military collection at the Winter Palace. In 1828 he was officially appointed First Portrait Painter of the Imperial Court, but following a brief return visit to England, was taken ill and died in October 1829 at the home of his brother-in-law and fellow painter, Thomas Wright. He is buried in St Paul’s Cathedral. The most significant body of work he created is in the Hermitage Museum and many works are also housed within the British royal collection.

The Royal Academy of Arts gold medal, conceived in 1768 and first awarded in 1770, recognises exceptional achievements in the fields of architecture, painting and art. Dawe received his medal for Achilles, Frantic for the Loss of Patroclus, Rejecting the Consolation of Thetis (Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington), which was regarded by contemporaries as ‘the best ever offered to the Academy on a similar occasion’. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1804

The case is not original