Antoine-Louis Barye

ANTOINE-LOUIS BARYE (France, 1795 - 1875).
"Lion crushing a snake".
Patinated bronze.
Signed.
In good condition.
Measurements: 30 x 40 cm.

The model of this sculpture - possibly the best known of the sculptor - was created in 1832 and was first exhibited life-size in plaster at the Salon of 1833. Subsequently, the French government commissioned Barye to cast it for the Place des Tuileries in Paris, which was cast by Gonon & Sons, exhibited at the 1856 Salon, and is now preserved in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. The Louvre Museum has a similar copy (inventory number 5740).
A key sculptor of French Romanticism, Barye began his training with his father, a goldsmith, and later expanded it with the masters François Joseph Bosio and Antoine-Jean Gros, at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he entered in 1818. Especially appreciated were his animalistic sculptures, largely initiators of the genre. He had his own foundry, collaborated with Viollet-le-Duc on a project commissioned by Napoleon III and was the teacher of Auguste Rodin. He presented his works at the Paris Salon, and created monuments such as the "Lion with Serpent" in the Tuileries Garden (1833), commissioned by the king. He is currently represented in the Louvre and Orsay Museums in Paris, the National Gallery in London, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Albertina in Vienna, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Smithsonian in Washington D.C., among other museums around the world.