Dora Ohlfsen and the facade commission

In the early 20th century, Ohlfsen was one of the world’s most highly regarded sculptors of medallions. Portrait or fine art medallions are an ancient form of commemorative sculpture which found renewed popularity in the European Renaissance, then again in the late 1800s.

Portraits such as Ohlfsen’s of Cardinal O’Connell follow the long tradition of designing medals to celebrate entry into the Sacred College of Cardinals. Most cardinals tended to choose a medallist from their own country. American O’Connell, Archbishop of Boston, chose a female Australian artist, Ohlfsen, to design his commemorative medallion.

On double-sided pieces, the portrait was considered the front, or obverse. The back, or reverse, often carried an allegorical or narrative scene relating to the portrait (or as here, the Cardinal’s coat of arms). Medals could be either struck – using dies forced onto a metal blank – or cast, from models made of wax or plaster. Ohlfsen seems to have used both processes at different times. In addition, she may have used a reducing machine, a type of lathe that allowed her to scale down her large metal models and produce them as multiples.

Ohlfsen made her name creating portraits of the rich and powerful. In her studio salon, Ohlfsen and her partner Elena von Kügelgen would entertain nobility, church leaders and the literary and artistic figures who made up the sophisticated art scene in Rome. Among her portraits is the first of celebrated Italian poet Gabriele D’Annunzio, one of American actress Mary Anderson, and two British prime ministers, both of whom sat for Ohlfsen during her visit to London in 1919.

Ohlfsen visited Benito Mussolini, leader of the Fascist Party and later prime minister of Italy, five times to make sketches for her portrait. He inscribed the plaster cast with his motto ‘per adua ad astra’ (through adversity to the stars). The portrait was described as having ‘vigorous lines’ that indicate both ‘the virility of the artist and the power of the man.’

Press noted that British prime minister Lloyd George ‘sat for Miss Ohlfsen in Downing Street and the House of Commons during her visit to London in 1919 … The face has a younger and stronger character than more recent presentments suggest, and is finely modelled with minute touches that contribute to an expression of shrewd and ardent eagerness in the forward gaze. The technical treatment of the hair is highly finished.’

Mary Anderson (1859-1940) was an American stage actress. She married Antonio Fernando de Navarro in 1890 and was then billed as Mary Navarro during her successful silent film career. Later the couple settled in England in the Cotswolds. Ohlfsen was their guest, modelling this medallion while staying with the couple.