Artwork Details
- Title
- Happy Are Those Whom Privacy Makes Innocent
- Artist
- Commissioner
- Society of Medallic Arts
- Founder
- Medallic Art Company
- Date
- 1946
- Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 2 7⁄8 in. (7.3 cm) diam.
- Credit Line
- Gift of the heirs of Albert Laessle: Mrs. Albertine de Bempt Laessle, Mr. Albert M. Laessle and Mr. Paul Laessle
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- bronze
- Keywords
- Figure group
- Occupation — farm — harvesting
- Animal — horse
- Figure male — full length
- Occupation — farm — animal husbandry
- Object Number
- 1972.167.35
Artwork Description
The title and inscriptions on Sidney Waugh's medal are taken from Hydriotaphia, or Urn-Burial, an essay written by the seventeenth-century English physician and philosopher Sir Thomas Browne. The physician pondered the folly of men who seek fame in this world and build grand monuments to honor themselves when they are dead. "Happy are they whom privacy makes innocent," Browne wrote, "who deal so with men in this world, that they are not afraid to meet them in the next, who when they dye, make no commotion among the dead . . . 'Tis all one to lye in St. Innocent's churchyard as in the sands of Egypt."