Object details
Accession number
M1w14
Primary Creator
Anton Scharff
(Vienna, 1845 - 1902, Brunn am Gebirge, Austria)
Full title
Medal of Johannes Brahms
Creation Date
1893
Object Case
Musicians Case
Provenance
Entered Isabella Stewart Gardner's collection after 1893.
Marks
Signed (obverse): A. Scharff
Inscribed (reverse): DIE GESELLSCHAFT DER MUSIKFREUNDE IN WIEN, ZUM 60. GEBURTSTAGE 7. MAI 1893 [The Society of Friends of the Music in Vienna , on its 60th anniversary, 7th May 1893]
Dimensions
5.9 cm (2 5/16 in.)
Display Media
Bronze
Web Commentary
Gardner collected a number of medals to display within her museum, including this bronze portrait medal honoring celebrated composer Johannes Brahms (1833-1897). Through her own efforts, Gardner met Brahms while both were on holiday in Bad Ischl, Austria in 1894. Her biographer Morris Carter notes that an acquaintance of Gardner’s caught a glimpse of the two “having tea together like old friends,” and that Brahms gave her an autographed photograph at the end of their meeting.
Permanent Gallery Location
Yellow Room
Bibliography
Max Kalbeck. Johannes Brahms, IV (Vienna, 1915), p. 320.
Jan Swafford. Johannes Brahms: A Biography (New York, 2012), p. 558.
Yale University Art Gallery ECatalogue, New Haven, accessed 2013. http://artgallery.yale.edu
Tanya Karpiak. "The medallic secrets of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum." The Medal (Autumn 2014), p. 19.
Rights and reproductions
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