Medal, struck bronze, of the Société Centrale des Architects, awarded to Caspar Purdon Clarke at the Congrès International des Architectes, Paris, 1889, by Eugène-André Oudiné and Henri Labrouste, French, 1848

Medal, bronze.

Given by Ute and Jonathan Kagan in honour of Mark Jones

Given by Ute and Jonathan Kagan in honour of V&A director Mark Jones in 2011. The Kagans purchased this medal, together with two others (lot 6468), at Stack's New York Americana Sale on 26 January 2011.

Historical significance: A polymath, architect and museum administrator, Caspar Purdon Clarke had a lifelong connection to the South Kensington Museum, from his early years as a student of architecture at the National Art training School in 1862, to his directorship of the Museum (1896-1905).

The medal's obverse was jointly designed by the medallist Eugène-André Oudiné (1810-1887) and the architect Henri Labrouste (1801-1875) and first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1848. In the field, the profile bust of the muse of Architecture is coiffed by buildings and monuments, including a Greek temple, Trajan’s Column and the basilica Saint Peter in Rome and Italian Renaissance buildings. Labrouste probably provided the design of these buildings, while the female profile is closely related to that of the Republic on Oudiné’s French five piece franc, designed in 1850. This is a rare example of their collaborative work.

The Société Centrale des Architectes (Paris) was founded in 1840. As the inscription on the reverse states, this particular specimen was awarded to Caspar Purdon Clarke (1846-1911) at the Congrès International des Architectes in Paris in 1889, presumably for his work on the Indian palace at the International Exhibition the same year.

This medal of the Société des Architectes was awarded to Caspar Purdon Clarke (1846-1911) at the Congrès International des Architectes in Paris in 1889, presumably for his work on the Indian palace at the International Exhibition the same year.

A polymath, architect and museum administrator, Clarke had a longstanding connection with the South Kensington Museum, from his early years as a student of architecture at the National Art Training School in 1862, to his directorship of the Museum (1896-1905). Clarke left the V&A to become Director of the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

The medal’s obverse, first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1848, is a rare example of collaborative work between the medallist Eugène-André Oudiné (1810-1887) and the architect Henri Labrouste (1801-1875). Labrouste is best-known for the two libraries he designed in Paris between 1843 and 1867. An important medallist, Oudiné was notably influential in training a new generation of artists that would establish France as the leading school of medal-making at the end of the nineteenth century.

A.4-2011