U.S.A., The Joy of Effort, 1912 [struck 1914], a gold plated medal by Prof. R. Tait...

McKenzie, Robert Tait (Canadian, 1867-1938); b. Mississippi Mills, moved to the U.S.A. 1904, and Medallic Art Co (Dayton, OH, then Danbury, CT, Sioux Falls, SD, and Dayton, NV, fl. 1903-2018) U.S.A., The Joy of Effort, 1912 [struck 1914], a gold plated medal by Prof. R. Tait Mckenzie for Medallic Art Co on behalf of the National Recreation Association, three naked atheletes hurdling over a column, the joy of effort on scroll below, rev. for enriching the human spirit through recreation, etc, edge impressed medallic art co n.y. 1/20 10k gf, 77mm, 144.35g (Kozar 35; cf. BDM VIII, 11). A superb study, extremely fine and extremely rare, the first ‘gold-foil’ medal of the issue £400-£500 --- Provenance: DNW Auction 51, 4 October 2001, lot 1232; DNW Auction 52, 28-9 November 2001, lot 722. The artist qualified as a doctor and practised medicine from 1892 to 1904, when he became professor of physical education at the University of Pennsylvania. His first works were executed in 1902 and ‘he has an unusual technical knowledge. One particular type of physical development, the young college athlete, is continually before [McKenzie] as before no other sculptor. The director of physical training in a large institution has the nude almost as constantly before him as in Hellenic life.’ (Forrer, BDM VIII, 8). McKenzie’s The Joy of Effort was commissioned by the U.S. Olympic Committee in 1912 and entered into the competition to design the official medal to commemorate the Fifth Olympiad; an original bronze was set into the wall of the stadium at Stockholm. The work inspired a poem by Charles Wharton Stork, published in Century Magazine, July 1912 (BDM VIII, pp.11-12). Further background detail is provided by Andrew Kozar, R. Tait McKenzie: The Sculptor of Athletes (Knoxville, 1975), pp.58-9