Jaguar Qui Marche No. 2 (Walking Jaguar) Antoine L Barye

Name: Jaguar Qui Marche No. 2 (Walking Jaguar) Antoine L Barye
Brand: Antoine-Louis Barye
Price: 10643.35 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

From our Sculpture collection, we are delighted to offer this Jaguar Qui Marche No. 2 (Walking Jaguar) Bronze by Antoine-Louis Barye. The Jaguar Qui Marche translates directly to Jaguar that walks is an infamous bronze by the renowned French sculptor Antoine-Louis Barye. It is exceptionally cast upon a double stepped plinth with a dark brown and mottled green patination throughout. Signed across the base Barye and numbered to the underside ’43’, the sculpture dates to the first half of the 19th century circa 1840. This figure was originally modelled by Antoine Louis Barye (1795-1875) as a pair to a Jaguar Standing. More than a decade later he modelled a slightly different pair, also of a jaguar walking paired with a jaguar standing but this time with their ears set back and on a rocky base. It is important to note that later models typically bear the Barbedienne foundry mark due to Barbedienne purchasing the original drawings when Barye died. Reference The same Barye figure can be seen in the V&A museum accession number A.24-1971. -See Poletti, Michel and Richarme, Alain. Barye : Catalogue Raisonné des Sculptures Paris (Gallimard) 2000. Cat. no A90 -Animals in Bronze by Christopher Payne page 134 -Pivar, Stuart, The Barye Bronzes, A Catalogue Raisonné Woodbridge (The Antique Collectors Club), 1974, p.41, no A77 -Horswell, Jane, Bronze Sculpture of ‘Les Animaliers’ Reference and Price Guide, Suffolk (The Antique Collectors Club), 1971, p.80 Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper with approximately 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such as arsenic or silicon depending on the age of the bronze and its origin. The additions of other metals produce a range of alloys that are usually harder than copper alone and carry useful properties such as strength. The earliest known use of bronze dates to the 5th millennium BCE from Iranian plateau, the bronze mix consists of arsenical copper and copper-arsenide. The earliest tin-copper-alloy recovered is dated to circa 4650 BCE and was found in Plocnik, Serbia. It is believed to have been smelted from a natural tin-copper ore. Antoine-Louis Barye was born in Paris in 1795 and was thought to have lived his entire life in Paris and never left France throughout his life. He was a self tought in the liberal arts and initially trained under his father a goldsmith in Lyon. He went onto train with Martin-Guillaume Biennais (active 1800-1832) master goldsmith to Napoleon, fine arts sculptor François-Joseph Bosio (1768-1845) and painter Baron Gros (1771-1835). Throughout his career Barye won a host of awards and made multiple commissions for the French government. Barye was the leading sculptor in the French group of artists known as Les Animaliers and a leading sculptor in France throughout his career. Barye passed away in 1875, and after an elaborate funeral to signal his high artistic stature Barye was buried at Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Measurements (centimetres) 11cm High x 22cm Long x 7cm Wide

Creator:

Antoine-Louis Barye (Maker)

Dimensions:

Height: 4.33 in (11 cm)Width: 2.76 in (7.02 cm)Depth: 8.66 in (22 cm)

Style:

Louis Philippe (Of the Period)

Materials and Techniques:

Bronze,Cast

Place of Origin:

France

Period:

Mid-19th Century

Date of Manufacture:

Circa 1840

Condition:

Wear consistent with age and use.

Seller Location:

Newark, GB

Reference Number:

Seller: SBBWDD1stDibs: LU6971236972722

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Antoine-Louis Barye

The son of a goldsmith, Parisian born Antoine-Louis Barye was a sculptor of animal subjects and acclaimed, not only for his apparent skill but as the founder of what became known as the French Animaliers School. Among his patrons were representatives of the state government and royalty, including the Duke of Orleans and the Dukes of Luynes, Montpensier and Nemours.

Well compensated financially, Barye was able to buy the best of materials and hire the country's most skilled foundry craftsmen. The foundry he hired was owned by Ferdinand Barbedienne and casts from this period were stamped with the letters, FB. However, he did not make a lot of money from his work because he was such a perfectionist that often he would not sell his work because he thought it was not "quite right." In 1848, he declared bankruptcy and his molds and plaster casts were sold along with the copyrights.

Barye's specialty was aroused, angry-seeming wild game such as lions and tigers and elephants, but he also did equestrian groups and mythology figures. In order to do realistic depictions of animal anatomy, he spent much time at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. His early training was as an apprentice to a metal engraver, but being drafted in the army in 1812 ended that education. In 1832, he had established his studio, and unique at that time was his method of cold stamping his bronze casts so that each one had a special number. He had his first entry, The Milo of Croton, in the Paris Salon in 1819, winning a second prize. In 1831, a work regarded as a masterpiece, Tiger Devouring a Gavial, was in the Salon and purchased for the Luxembourg Gardens, which is now in the Louvre. However, many of his subsequent Salon submissions were rejected and so angered him that between 1836 and 1851, he refused to submit entries. In 1851, he again exhibited at the Salon with Jaguar Devouring A Hare, and this work, like the 1831 entry, was placed in the Luxembourg Gardens and eventually in the Louvre.

In spite of problems with the Salon, Barye received many accolades for his work, and the period of 1837–48 was considered the most productive time of his career. However, in 1848, when he lost control of his work and it was reproduced by others including Martin and Barbedienne, the sculptures, according to some art professionals, are not as skillfully executed. In 1848, after his bankruptcy, Barye became director of Casts and Models in the Louvre, until 1850, when he was replaced by Emmanuel Fremiet. It was a very difficult time for him. However, within a few years, he began receiving accolades for the quality and uniqueness of his work, and people began appreciating the powerful images of his sculpture, especially the wildlife in their natural surroundings. In 1854, he was appointed Master of Zoological Drawing in the Musée National d'Histoire Naturelle and held this position until his death in 1875.