DOI Heft:
Nr 76 (July 1899)
DOI Artikel:Forrer, L.: A swiss medalist: M. F. Landry
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19232#0105
A Swiss Medallist
“ BARGES”
FROM A PAINTING BY FRANTZ MELCIIERS
imitate but to create, and to be himself in his own
works.
During his artistic career, M. Landry has had to
impress on medals and plaquettes all kinds of
subjects and a manifold variety of feelings ; labour
and the labourer have always been a favourite
theme of study for him; he shows sympathetic
interest for the lowest grades in the strata of
society and brings them also, as they have a right
to be brought, within the compass of his genius
and within the scope of his art.
M. Landry is the designer of the new Swiss twenty-
franc piece, which forms a new departure in the
art of coinage. Helvetia is represented with the
features of a Swiss maiden, portrayed from nature;
in the freshness and energy of her expression, she
symbolises a vigorous, valiant, and industrious
nation; her eyes, full of hope, contemplate with
pride the lofty summits which have witnessed six
centuries of freedom and progress ; a true daughter
of the Alps, she wears a necklet of edelweiss, which
adds grace and charm to the picture.
88
M. Landry’s medals are real works of art.
Under his hand the bronze attains a rare supple-
ness. The portraits of Agassiz, the great natura-
list, and Fritz Berthoud, the distinguished Swiss
novelist, are treated, according to the personality,
either in very bold or low relief. The gifted
writer’s characteristic head, his picturesque costume
and headdress, remind one of the Florentine types
of the Renaissance. Agassiz’s head is that of the
savant; the lofty forehead denotes the thinker ; the
look is that of the keen observer of nature ; great
kindness and nobility of feelings are revealed by
the delineation of the mouth and chin.
It is not only in the modelling of the subjects
that a vast improvement is noticeable on the
modern medal. M. Landry and the great artists
of our day have realised that an artistic effect can
be obtained by a clever disposition of the legends
and variation in the style of the letters. Formerly
inscriptions displayed such uniformity, being
struck on the flans with the same puncheons,
that, instead of adding to the merit of the medal,
“ BARGES”
FROM A PAINTING BY FRANTZ MELCIIERS
imitate but to create, and to be himself in his own
works.
During his artistic career, M. Landry has had to
impress on medals and plaquettes all kinds of
subjects and a manifold variety of feelings ; labour
and the labourer have always been a favourite
theme of study for him; he shows sympathetic
interest for the lowest grades in the strata of
society and brings them also, as they have a right
to be brought, within the compass of his genius
and within the scope of his art.
M. Landry is the designer of the new Swiss twenty-
franc piece, which forms a new departure in the
art of coinage. Helvetia is represented with the
features of a Swiss maiden, portrayed from nature;
in the freshness and energy of her expression, she
symbolises a vigorous, valiant, and industrious
nation; her eyes, full of hope, contemplate with
pride the lofty summits which have witnessed six
centuries of freedom and progress ; a true daughter
of the Alps, she wears a necklet of edelweiss, which
adds grace and charm to the picture.
88
M. Landry’s medals are real works of art.
Under his hand the bronze attains a rare supple-
ness. The portraits of Agassiz, the great natura-
list, and Fritz Berthoud, the distinguished Swiss
novelist, are treated, according to the personality,
either in very bold or low relief. The gifted
writer’s characteristic head, his picturesque costume
and headdress, remind one of the Florentine types
of the Renaissance. Agassiz’s head is that of the
savant; the lofty forehead denotes the thinker ; the
look is that of the keen observer of nature ; great
kindness and nobility of feelings are revealed by
the delineation of the mouth and chin.
It is not only in the modelling of the subjects
that a vast improvement is noticeable on the
modern medal. M. Landry and the great artists
of our day have realised that an artistic effect can
be obtained by a clever disposition of the legends
and variation in the style of the letters. Formerly
inscriptions displayed such uniformity, being
struck on the flans with the same puncheons,
that, instead of adding to the merit of the medal,