Antoine-Louis Barye

Antoine-Louis Barye (September 24, 1796 – June 25, 1875) was a French sculptor most famous for his work as an animalier, a sculptor of animals. Born in Paris, Barye began his career as a goldsmith, like many sculptors of the Romantic Period. After studying under sculptor Francois-Joseph Bosio and painter Baron Antoine-Jean Gros he was in 1818 admitted to the École des Beaux Arts. But it was not until 1823, while working for Fauconnier, the goldsm... more

Antoine-Louis Barye (September 24, 1796 – June 25, 1875) was a French sculptor most famous for his work as an animalier, a sculptor of animals. Born in Paris, Barye began his career as a goldsmith, like many sculptors of the Romantic Period. After studying under sculptor Francois-Joseph Bosio and painter Baron Antoine-Jean Gros he was in 1818 admitted to the École des Beaux Arts. But it was not until 1823, while working for Fauconnier, the goldsmith, that he discovered his true predilection from watching the animals in the Jardin des Plantes, making vigorous studies of them in pencil drawings comparable to those of Delacroix, then modelling them in sculpture on a large or small scale. In 1831 he exhibited his Tiger devouring a Crocodile, and in 1832 had mastered a style of his own in the Lion and Snake. Thenceforward Barye, though engaged in a perpetual struggle with want, exhibited year after year studies of animals—admirable groups which reveal him as inspired by a spirit of true... less