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Description: signed: BARYE

bronze, dark brown patina

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Dimensions: 41 by 102.5cm., 16 1/8 by 40 3/8 in.

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Notes: Tiger Devouring a Gavial launched Barye's career when the original plaster was exhibited at the Salon of 1831. The critic Etienne-Jean Delecluze described the work as 'the strongest and most significant work of the entire Salon', while Theophile Gautier commented, 'what energy, what ferocity, what a thrill of satisfied lust for killing shows in the flattened ears, the savage gleaming eyes, the curved nervous back, the clutching paws, the rocking haunches, and the writhing tail of the tiger, and how the poor scaly monster doubles in agony under those cutting teeth and jaws'. The present impressive bronze, a rare example of the model in the size of the original, is probably a cast produced by Henri Brame who issued a posthumous edition in 1884.

RELATED LITERATURE
Poletti & Richarme (2000), p.204, no.A74(1)