Maurice Lambert RA (1901-1964)
AENGUS AND THE BIRDS - THE LADY GREGORY MEDAL FOR THE IRISH ACADEMY OF LETTERS, 1934
cast bronze art medal; (from a limited edition of 17)
signed in monogram "ML" lower right; with 'Irish Academy of Letters' on reverse
h:3 w:3 in.

Exhibited:
'Maurice Lambert', Lefevre Gallery, London, May 1934

Commissioned by W. B. Yeats on behalf of the Irish Academy of Letters, February 1934.

W. B. Yeats commissioned this medal [1]. He sought to raise the necessary funds for the commission whilst on a North American lecture tour in 1933 and by December of that year had been promised £200 for the project, mostly from Judge R. Campbell and Patrick McCartan. After canvassing a number of artists , he selected the English sculptor Maurice Lambert to carry out the commission; .[2] Letters between Yeats and Lambert in the National Library of Ireland reveal that Lambert chose the subject Aengus and the Birds, but that Yeats interpreted the image as being symbolic of and . Yeats was very pleased with the final work, deeming it .

In November 1934 he wrote to tell McCartan:

The award became known as the Lady Gregory Medal. The first three were awarded to George Russell 'AE', George Bernard Shaw, and to Yeats himself.

With sincere thanks to Dr. Declan Kiely of the Berg Collection, New York Public Library, and to Prof. Roy Foster, Oxford University, for their generous assistance in cataloguing this item.

1 W. B. Yeats to Judge R. Campbell, circa 20 January 1933 (NLI)
2 W. B. Yeats to Patrick McCartan, 16 February 1934 (NLI)
3 W. B. Yeats to Patrick McCartan, 30 November 1934 (NLI)

Dimensionsh:3 w:3in.

To read the complete lot description, see:
Lot 102: Maurice Lambert RA (1901-1964) AENGUS AND THE BIRDS - THE LADY GREGORY MEDAL FOR THE IRISH ACADEMY OF LETTERS, 1934(https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/Maurice-Lambert-RA-1901-1964-AENGUS-AND-THE-BIR-102-c-2654F72847)