# Victor David Brenner artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/victor-david-brenner/
Profile generated: 2026-05-09T18:10:37.229Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1871-06-12
- Death date: 1924-04-05
- Nationality: Lithuanian, American
- Movements: American Beaux-Arts medallic art
- Common media: bronze, plaster

## About Victor David Brenner

Victor David Brenner (1871–1924) was a Lithuanian-born American sculptor, engraver, and medalist best known as the designer of the United States Lincoln cent, first issued in 1909 to commemorate the centennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. Born in Šiauliai, Lithuania, Brenner emigrated to the United States around 1890. He trained at the National Academy in New York and the Académie Julian in Paris, where he studied under the French medalist Oscar Roty, a leading figure in the revival of artistic medal-making. Brenner became one of the foremost practitioners of medallic art in America, producing portrait bas-reliefs, commemorative plaques, and sculptural busts in bronze. His work bridged European Beaux-Arts medallic traditions and the emerging American Renaissance in decorative arts, and collectors today encounter his medals, plaquettes, and portrait sculptures at auction.

## Common works and media

Brenner's output spans bronze commemorative medals, portrait plaques and bas-relief plaquettes, sculptural busts, medallic lockets, and monumental works including fountains. Portrait medallions of presidents, industrialists, and cultural figures appear regularly at auction. His designs for US coinage, especially the Lincoln cent and the Lincoln-plaque model that preceded it, are among the most reproduced American sculptural works. Smaller bronze plaquettes and art medals constitute the majority of lots attributed to him in auction records.

## Market and appraisal context

Brenner's most commonly traded works are bronze art medals, commemorative plaquettes, and portrait bas-reliefs. Value depends on the subject, commission origin, size, edition, and condition. Portrait medals of historically notable sitters and works with documented exhibition or institutional provenance tend to attract stronger interest. Large-format bronze busts and fountain sculptures are comparatively rare. The Lincoln cent connection gives Brenner wide name recognition, though the coins themselves are mass-produced US Mint issues rather than unique artworks. Collectors should distinguish original lifetime strikes from later re-strikes and verify attribution on unsigned pieces.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist identity research from authority files and institutional sources with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. For Victor David Brenner, identity data is grounded in the Getty ULAN, Library of Congress, VIAF, RKD, and Wikidata authority records. Market context should be supplemented by Invaluable and Appraisily lot-level data for specific appraisal inquiries.

## Sources

- RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/119352
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n2001061722
- VIAF (OCLC): https://viaf.org/viaf/43646710/
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500090981
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5762066
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_David_Brenner