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Description: signed & dated: BARYE 1841 and stamped BARYE 1 bronze, dark brown patina

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Dimensions: measurements note 23.5 by 40cm., 9¼ by 15¾in.

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Notes: Barye produced casts with the stamp BARYE in his own atelier and under his personal supervision between 1832 and 1843 with a few casts with the stamp appearing later, up until 1857. In this case the inscribed date of 1841 refers to the actual casting date of the model. The number 1, seen on the present bronze, indicates the first cast of an edition and this Lion qui marche is therefore an important example of Barye?s art as a founder. The crisp quality of the casting is testament to this special period of Barye?s own production of his models.

Barye explained his numbering system in a letter to a collector in 1859: ?The number 27, on the Lion au serpent that you have acquired, is a number referring to order, that is, the 27υth cast of the model.?

The lion was one of Barye?s most characteric motifs, and this lion embodies the Romantic notion of untamed power in every tensed muscle as he strides forwards. The Lion qui marche with its pendant Tigre went on to become one of Barye?s most popular models.

RELATED LITERATURE
Untamed, p. 179, Poletti & Richarme (2000), no. A6, pp. 39-40 & 187