The Royal Medal

Photograph of Richard Hall's painting Gustav Vasa as a child in front of King Hans, 1881.
Photo: correspondence of Mauri R. Hall, Pori Art Museum archive

 

I have written about Richard Hall's time as a student in the blog post Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts. In it, he tells of winning the Royal Prize Medal in his final year of study. The medal was the highest state award for a graduating student. On the other hand, by the time the prize was awarded in 1881, there were already signs of protest among young artists against the old-fashioned way of teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts. The main source for this article is Maria Görts' doctoral thesis Det sköna i verklighetens värld: akademisk konstsyn i Sverige under senare delen av 1800-talet, 1999 (Beauty and the world of reality: Academic Aesthetic Attitudes in Sweden during the late Ninteeth Century).

Shared first prize

The Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts organised the Royal Medal competition in 1881. The theme was "Gustav Vasa as a child before King Hans" (also known as King John). The prize was announced on 11 May 1881. The shared first prize was awarded to Jenny Nyström and Richard Hall. A black and white photograph of Hall's painting is preserved in the archives of the Pori Art Museum. The photo was sent to the museum by Mauri R. Hall, the grandson of the artist's brother. On the back of the photo it is written that "the painting is lost and much sought after".

Jenny Nyström's prize-winning painting is part of the collection of the Kalmar County Museum. I have not been able to find Hall's work in the collections of Swedish museums. It must therefore be said that Hall's painting may still be missing. We can thus only get an idea of the painting from a black and white photograph. An interesting detail is that the work is depicted on a easel without frames. Could the original photograph be from the spring of 1881, when the work had just been completed?

Royal medal

The King of Sweden had awarded royal medals as prizes in recognition of various social achievements since the 1700s. Since 1866, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts awarded medals in the field of art to its students. The Royal Medal's significance was enhanced by the fact that it enabled to apply for a government travel grant. At the time, it was thought that an art academy education laid the foundations, and after graduation, the artist had to develop his or her own expression. The scholarship enabled them to continue their studies in Paris, for example, which was the most popular destination for artists in the 1880s.

According to Maria Görts' doctoral thesis, a total of 47 students received the medal between 1866 and 1892. This means that it was quite common for two people to be awarded at the same time. In contrast, it was much less common for students to receive a state travel grant: only 12 students received one during this period. I have not yet been able to find a comprehensive list of the recipients. The winners of the 1881 prize competition were rare for their time: Jenny Nyström was the first woman to win a royal medal and Richard Hall was not a Swedish citizen. Both were also awarded a travel bursary to enable them to continue their studies in Paris.

Protesting

The Hall's annual course was a high-level one. In the spring of 1881, graduates included among others Anders Zorn, Richard Bergh and Johan Krouthén. At least Zorn and Krouthén did not enter the prize competition. Zorn's memoirs show that he did not like history painting. In the spring of 1881 he was also warned for the second time by Georg von Rosen, the director of the Academy of Fine Arts. As a result, Zorn announced that he would leave the academy immediately after graduation. As an expression of support, apparently Krouthén did the same and also did not enter the competition, despite the opportunity to apply for the substantial travel grant after winning the price.

Thus, the protests against what was perceived as outdated teaching at the academy had already begun at that time. In 1885, the Opponenterna group - to which both Zorn and Krouthén belonged - addressed a letter to the Academy demanding a reform of teaching, exhibitions and grants. In the spring of 1881, the withdrawal of talented fellow students from the competition meant that others had a better chance of success. On the other hand, at least Oscar Björck and Acke Andersson entered the competition, and the Swedish National Museum acquired Andersson's version of Gustav Vasa and King Hans for its collection.

Conclusion

The Spring 1881 Royal Medal competition is an interesting episode in the history of both Richard Hall and the Royal Academy of Arts. It would be interesting to study it in more detail, but this would require research into the original sources, including the Academy's archives.

In a separate blog post, I will discuss the history painting of the period and the versions painted by Richard Hall and Jenny Nyström of the topic Gustav Vasa as a child in front of King Hans.