Antoine Louis Barye
| Antoine-Louis Barye | |
|---|---|
Portrait by Léon Bonnat
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| Born |
24 September 1796 Paris, France |
| Died | 25 June 1875 |
| Education | École des Beaux Arts |
| Occupation | Sculptor |
| Parent(s) | Pierre and Marguerite Barye |
Antoine-Louis Barye (24 September 1796 – 25 June 1875) was a Romantic French sculptor most famous for his work as an animalier, a sculptor of animals.
Born in Paris, France, Barye began his career as a goldsmith, like many sculptors of the Romantic Period. He first worked under his father Pierre, and around 1810 worked under the sculptor Guillaume-Mertin Biennais, who was a goldsmith to Napoleon. After studying under sculptor Francois-Joseph Bosio in 1816, 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 the goldsmith Emile Fauconnier 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 modeling them in sculpture on a large or small scale.
In 1819 while he was studying at the École des Beaux-Arts, Barye sculpted a medallion named Milo of Crotana Devoured by a Lion, in which the lion bites into Milo's left thigh. Milo's theme was the school's official theme for the medallion competition of 1819, where Bayre earned an honorable mention. c. 1820 Bayre sculpted Hercules with the Erymanthean Boar, depicting Hercules's fourth Labor, where he had to capture a live wild boar from Mount Erymanthos.
Barye was no less successful in sculpture on a small scale, and excelled in representing animals in their most familiar attitudes. Barye sculpted the portrait medallion Young Man in a Beret (1823) in bronze, as well as Portrait of the Founder Richard (1827), in which only a head and neck are shown. He also sculpted Poised Stag (1829), a much larger sculpture, which had a height of 48 cm, and was one-third life size.
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