Legend of Bronze Sculpture: Antoine-Louis Barye

Sculpting is a timeless artistic form that has produced some of humanity’s most priceless and enduring works of art. Throughout the ages different sculpting genres and formats have derived from its original form and have produced many artists who specialize in a sculpting niche. One such artistic niche that saw its rise in popularity in the 19th century is “animalier” bronzes, or small-scale sculptures of animals. Animalier bronzes were produced, often mass-produced, throughout Europe and the United States, but were especially popular in France. “Animaliers” are artists who were known for their skills in the realistic portrayal of animals. The most successful animalier of all time was Antoine-Louis Barye.

Antoine-Louis Barye (1796 - 1875) was born in Paris. He began his career as a goldsmith, like many sculptors of the Romantic Period. Barye learned the importance of perfection, form and decoration in art from his father, a jeweler, and his younger days as a jewelry apprentice. As a journeyman, he mastered the techniques of melting and testing of metals. In 1812, he was drafted into the military.

After the war Barye went on to study under the Classical sculptor Francois-Joseph Bosio until 1818, when he was admitted to the L’École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He soon was recognized for his talents and won second prize in 1819. But it wasn’t until 1823, while working for Fauconnier, the goldsmith, that Barye discovered his true preference from watching the animals in the Jardin des Plantes. Barye closely studied their movements, personality, and idiosyncrasies and made vigorous studies of them in sketch drawings. Barye then modeled the sketches in sculpture on both a large and small scale.

Barye strode to capture in bronze sculpture both an inner vitality as well as outer appearance, to give life and death to the subject. Barye’s animals also varied from the ferocious and tame to the unusual. In 1831, Barye exhibited his Tiger devouring a Crocodile, and in 1832 he opened his own studio and truly found his own unique style with Lion and Snake.

Barye worked with one of the best founders of the century, Honoré Gonon, with whom he produced many castings in cire perdue, the sculptural process of metal casting for both hollow and solid casting. After Gonon died in 1838, Barye became a licensed bronzier. This is considered to be Barye’s most remarkable era, as he excelled in every step of the bronze statue process: molding, casting, chasing and patinating. Almost all of Barye’s works from 1840 to 1850 were entirely done by his own hand, a unique accomplishment of 19th century bronze sculpture. Some of these works included Roger and Angelica on the Hippogriff (1840), Theseus and the Minotaur (1847) and Lapitha and Centaur (1848).

Barye was the classic case of the artist's struggle for recognition and fame, both of which came late to his life. In 1848, Barye became director of a plaster casting establishment in the Louvre. In 1854 Barye was appointed Professor of Drawings at the Museum of Natural History for his artistic proficiency with anatomy. One of his pupils was the preeminent French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Antoine-Louis Barye is revered as the greatest animal sculptor of all time and father of the Animalier School. Wholesalesculptures.com offers affordable bronze sculptures of Antoine-Louis Barye for anyone who appreciates his animalier sculpting style. Visit www.wholesalesculpures.com today for Barye’s sculptures, including his Lion with Snake.