Portrait medal of Lady Bearsted
Artur Immanuel Loewental (1879-1964)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1938
Materials
Bronze and wood
Measurements
327 x 322 mm
Place of origin
Great Britain
Order this imageCollection
Upton House, Warwickshire
NT 446628.5
Summary
Bronze medal by Artur Immanuel Loewental (1879-1964) of Dorothea Montefiore Micholls Samuel, Lady Bearsted (1882-1949), in profile facing left, her hair bobbed, wearing a pearl earring. Inscription along rim at right: A LOEWENTAL.F.1938. Set upon a rectangular varnished wooden board.
Full description
Artur Immanuel Loewental was a talented sculptor who specialised in the production of portrait medals of his contemporaries. Born into a Jewish family in Vienna in 1879, he was already by 1898 recorded as producing medals and portrait plaques of prominent individuals in the Jewish community of Vienna. In 1900 he enrolled at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, where he completed his studies as a sculptor. Throughout the First World War and subsequently, Loewental lived in Berlin, but in 1934 he emigrated from Germany to Britain, where he remained until his death in 1964. He continued in Britain to sculpt numerous medals, as well as other sculptures. Lord Bearsted, who actively assisted Jewish people to emigrate from Germany, provided the newly arrived Loewental with a number of commissions in the 1930s. This is the second portrait medal of Lady Bearsted made by Lowental (for the first, made in 1936, see NT 446628.1 and 2). The two are very similar, although in this portrait from 1938, Lady Bearsted is here shown slightly more mature. Lowental also made a portrait of her in rock crystal (NT 447401) as well as sculptures of this keen horsewoman’s favourite hunter (NT 446634). Jeremy Warren, 2018
Provenance
Commissioned by Walter Samuel, 2nd Viscount Bearsted, in 1938; given with Upton House to the National Trust by Walter Samuel, 2nd Viscount Bearsted (1882 – 1948), in 1948.
Credit line
National Trust Collections (Upton House, The Bearsted Collection)
Marks and inscriptions
Obverse along rim of medal at right: ALŒWENTAL.F.1938.
Makers and roles
Artur Immanuel Loewental (1879-1964), sculptor
References
Turner 2014: John T. Turner, Artur Immanuel Loewental 1879-1964. A brief introduction to his life and work, together with a select list of his sculpted works, Lincoln 2014, p. 92, no. LOE 203