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Description: signed: BARYE with a label on the underside inscribed: F. BARBEDIENNE / 30, Bt. Poissonnière / BRONZE D'ART / PARIS bronze, green and brown patina

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Dimensions: measurements note 36.5cm., 14 3/8 in.

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Notes: Barye's Lion Assis was commisioned by Louis Philippe's government on 23rd December 1846 for the sum of 10,000 francs. The life-size cast was first paired with Barye's Lion au Serpent in the Tuilleries gardens and later moved to the entrance of the Pavilion de Flore. A mechanically reversed cast of the Lion Assis was made to pair with it, angering Barye who had wished to create an original companion of a life-size lioness.

Despite the disappointment of this pairing the model was much admired, particularly by the painter Léon Bonnat who wrote: 'No touch of hesitation in the design, in the full strong form. The great line which sweeps from muzzle to tail is superb, and standing before this bronze one has the feeling that here is might tempered by beauty.'

The Lion Assis was offered as a pendant to Lion au Serpent in Barye's catalogueof 1847. However, casts of the Lion Assis are much rarer than those of its pendant. Another cast of the model is in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore.

RELATED LITERATURE
Poletti & Richarme (2000), no. A56, p. 181, Saunier, p. 35; Untamed, no. 62, p. 163