Éléphant du Sénégal: M.20-2015

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (2015-04-27) by Batchelor, Ivor, Sir and Lady

Dating

19th Century
Production date: after AD 1874 : Original model c. 1874. First cast in bronze c. 1874. This version cast in bronze at an unknown date after 1874.

Note

Dubbed the ‘Michelangelo of the Menagerie’ by art critic Théophile Gautier (1811–72), Barye was a Romantic realist artist based in Paris who popularised the genre of animal sculpture from the 1830s onwards. Animals were very low down in the traditional Academic hierarchy of accepted subject-matter for artists, and the term animalier (an artist specialising in animals) was coined by critics specifically for Barye as a pejorative appellation. Barye was a successful monumental sculptor, but also created hundreds of small-scale models of animals for reproduction in bronze editions for middle-class homes. His last sales catalogue of 1865 listed over 230 compositions available to order as edition bronze statuettes. Keen for accuracy, Barye studied ancient animal sculptures as well as live beasts in the Musée d’Histoire Naturelle’s menagerie, copied zoological specimens in the Musée d’Anatomie Comparée and made anatomical drawings of dead lions. Bayre’s animal portraits include single animal figures (e.g. M.19-2015) and groups of predators with prey, or in combat with each other (e.g. M.1-2015), and some with human figures (e.g. M.5-2015). This model dates from the end of Barye's life. In the 1875 inventory of his studio, three examples of the Senegalese elephant were recorded: one 'finished' and two 'unfinished'. Poletti and Richarme 2000, p. 251, estimate that less then 10 examples were cast before Barye's death. At the posthumous sale of Barye's studio in 1876, this was one of the foundry models purchased by Ferdinand Barbedienne, the highly successful editor of fine art bronzes. Senegalese elephant was an immediate success for Barbedienne and continued to be produced by the foundry into the early 20th century.

School or Style

French