We end our parade of lions with this handsome sculpture, modeled after Antoine-Louis Barye's Walking Lion (circa 1841). Barye (1795-1875) was a Parisian animalier—an artist who creates animal sculptures. In his field, Barye is one of the greatest.
He started his "working life" as a goldsmith apprentice, under his father. He later worked in the studio of Napoleon's goldsmith. But animals—and sculpting animals—was his true artistic passion. Barye would spend hours at the Paris Zoo, sketching wild animals in their natural "attitudes." Eugène Delacroix (1798-1875) was Barye's artistic contemporary and his naturalistic sketches of wild animals inspired Barye to capture the energy and personality in his renderings of his subjects. Barye would then return to his studio where he would sculpt models based on these drawings—which he might later cast in bronze. Barye sculpted individual animals as well as groups of animals, sometimes engaged in life-or-death confrontations. Occasionally, Barye included "human animals" in his compositions—including in historical or mythological themes.
This sculpture, shown above, was made in the Teens or Twenties. It was sculpted and then electroplated with a bronze cladding. It could then be finished (colored and polished) as any bronze sculpture might. A piece like this might be found in an early Twentieth Century museum gift shop—where a visitor could take-home a replica of the piece he just saw in one of the galleries upstairs. Both the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., have one of Barye's Walking Lions. Click on the photo above to learn more about this handsome version.
Though our Greenwich Village store is now permanently closed, LEO Design is still alive and well! Please visit our on-line store where we continue to sell Handsome Gifts (www.LEOdesignNYC.com).
To arrange a visit our Pittsburgh showroom (by private appointment only), please call 917-446-4248.