Norman Wait Harris Prize medal, The Art Institute of Chicago
Victor David Brenner American, born Lithuania
Not on view
Established in 1902, the Norman Wait Harris Prize was a medal and cash prize awarded to an artist for a painting displayed in the Art Institute of Chicago’s annual exhibition of American paintings and sculpture. Both a Silver Medal and a Bronze Medal were presented annually, and in 1936 the Bronze Medal was awarded to leading Ashcan School painter William James Glackens for his painting The Soda Fountain (1935; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts). The obverse of the medal bears an allegorical representation of the art of painting, a classically garbed figure holding a palette and brushes. She stands in an architectural entranceway with a cloud-filled sky behind her. The reverse depicts the central façade of the Art Institute of Chicago, with oak and laurel branches flanking the central inscription.
