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Description: stamped twice: BARYE bronze, dark brown patina

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Dimensions: measurements note 37.5 by 34.5cm., 14¾ by 13½in.

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Notes: Poletti and Richarme estimate that only about twenty casts of the Amazone were cast during Barye's lifetime. Furthermore no posthumous edition is known as the bronze master model was not acquired by an editeur. The present bronze, which is twice cold stamped with the sculptor's name, was most likely cast around 1855. A cast of this model in The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, is also marked with the artist's cold stamp. In the present bronze great care has been taken with contrasting the horse's subtle coarse hair and the fine chasing of the dress. In one of the few extensive passages of drapery in the sculptor's oeuvre the sharpness of the casting is particularly evident, the dress flowing naturally over the rider's legs and feet, with the windswept veil that covers her hat enhancing the sense of movement in the composition. It has been suggested that the Amazone is an equestrian portrait of Hélène of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the Duchess of Orléans.

RELATED LITERETURE
Poletti & Richarme (2000), no. F4, p. 67; Untamed, cat. 49, p. 145