1796-1875

An epiphany occurred for Antoine-Louis Barye when his sculpture, Tiger Devouring a Crocodile, a departure from the human figures customarily exhibited, won a prize at an 1831 Paris show.  Trained as a goldsmith, his early drawn animal studies transmuted to both large and small-scale sculpture.  Barye imparted majesty, protectiveness and empathy for his lions.  Admitted to the Ecole des Beaux Arts in 1818, following service in Napoleon’s army, Barye’s monumental works include War, Peace, Strength and Order and Lion of the Column of July.  He was elected to the Academy of Fine Arts in 1868 and worked as a keeper of plaster casts at the Louvre.  His works appear publicly at the Hermitage Museum, the J. Paul Getty Museum and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.