Antoine-Louis Barye French, 1796-1875

Overview

Antoine-Louis Barye is considered the “Father of the French Animalier School” that became popular in the middle of the nineteenth century.  The Animalier movement was notable for its realistic and naturalistic portrayal of animals.  Barye addressed themes such as wild animals in dramatic action pitted against each other in the struggle for survival.  He was also instrumental in foundry practices and placed a great deal of energy and passion into the fabrication of his bronzes.  Barye was extremely influential to generations of European and American sculptors.  He received many commissions. He also executed many public works and monuments around France.  His works are represented in the great museums throughout the world, with large collections in American institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, N.Y.; the Brooklyn Museum; the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; the Baltimore Museum of Art; and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

 

Barye’s chief patron from the 1860’s on was W.T. Walters of Baltimore, whose collection is now the Walters Art Gallery, and who saw to it that Barye produced 120 works for the Corcoran Gallery in Washington the year before Barye died.  Other American collectors were Cyrus J. Lawrence, James F. Sutton, Samuel P. Avery, Richard M. Hunt, George A. Lucas and Theodore Roosevelt.  These nineteenth-century enthusiasts and their heirs so enriched our American public collections that they now hold more works of Barye than any other sculptor.

Exhibitions

Salon 1819 (2nd Prize), 1832, 1851

Exposition Universelle, 1855 (Grand Medal), 1867 (Grand Medal)

Museums and Public Collections

Aquarelles Museum, France

Art Institute of Chicago

Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland

Bayonne Museum, France

Bordeaux Museum, France

Brooklyn Museum, New York

Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin

Chi-Mei Museum, Taiwan

Clark Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.

Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK

Dahesh Museum, New York City

Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan

Dublin City Gallery, Ireland

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.

Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana

Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska

Le Puy Museum, France

London National Gallery, London, England

Los Angeles County Museum, California

Louvre Museum, Paris, France

Maryland State Archives

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota

Museé d’Orsay, Paris

Museé Magnin, Dijon, France

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

National Gallery, London

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen

National Gallery of Victoria, Australia

National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson Hole, Wyoming

New Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen

North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania

Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey

Rouen Museum, France

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

Tacoma Art Museum, Washington

Tuilleries Gardens

Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland

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