Jaguar Devouring a Hare
(18th and 19th Centuries )
Barye contrasts the powerful, broadly rendered muscular build of the jaguar with the more detailed, limp body of the terror-stricken hare. The cat's ears are pressed against its head and its features are convulsed in fury as it prepares to devour the entrails of its prey.
At the Paris Salon of 1850, "Jaguar Devouring a Hare" was exhibited together with "Lapith Combating a Centaur" -one work representing the artist's most romantic side and the other, his most classical. Both sculptures were acclaimed masterpieces. The critic Théophile Gautier observed of this sculpture:
"The mere reproduction of nature does not constitute art; [Barye] aggrandizes his animal subjects, simplifying them, idealizing and stylizing them in a manner that is bold, energetic, and rugged, that makes him the Michael Angelo of the menagerie."
Inscription
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.
Ferdinand Barbedienne; William T. Walters, Baltimore, 1884, by purchase [George A. Lucas as agent]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1894, by inheritance; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Exhibitions
2024-2025 | Reinstallation 2024: Art and Process. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. |
2007-2008 | Untamed: The Art of Antoine-Louis Barye. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa; The Henry Morrison Flagler Museum, Palm Beach. |
1959-1960 | Barye Sculpture and Drawings. American Federation of Arts, New York. |
1889-1890 | The Works of Antoine-Louis Barye. American Art Gallery (New York), New York. |
Geographies
France, Paris (Place of Origin)
Measurements
H: 16 1/4 x W: 38 x D: 17 in. (41.3 x 96.5 x 43.2 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired by William T. Walters, 1884
Location in Museum
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
27.180