3-095-362 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

Design for the Turner medal, c1857. Reverse and obverse designs for the Turner medal, the Royal Academy of Art's award for landscape painting. Following years of deliberation over the will of leading British painter J. M. W. Turner, the Royal Academy eventually received a sum of £20,000 from his estate in 1856. The Academy's Council Minutes record that it was agreed the funds should be used "in conformity with the will of the late J. M. W. Turner" for "a medal to be called 'Turner's medal' equal in value to the Gold medal now given by the Royal Academy be awarded to the best landscape painting at the Biennial Distribution". The Council duly requested the Academician and sculptor E. H. Baily be invited to provide a design for the medal. However, despite producing two different models, E. H. Baily's designs were not considered good enough by the Council.