"Surtout de table": Wild Bull Hunt

Description Sixteenth-century Spanish hunters armed with spears and accompanied by dogs attack a wild bull. It is a dangerous pursuit, and one of the men has fallen backward over his collapsed horse. The dogs are in peril as well. Barye had access to the duke of Orléans's extensive library containing books devoted to history and travel. It was from such sources that he might have derived inspiration for his subjects. This unique lost-wax cast originally was placed next to the plinth carrying the central "Tiger Hunt" (Walters 27.176) in the Duke d'Orleans' celebrated table centre-piece.

Exhibitions

• The Works of Antoine-Louis Barye. American Art Gallery (New York), New York. 1889-1890.
• Un âge d'or des arts décoratifs: 1814-1848. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris. 1991.
• Highlights from the Collection. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1998-2001.
• Untamed: The Art of Antoine-Louis Barye. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa; The Henry Morrison Flagler Museum, Palm Beach. 2007-2008.
• From Rye to Raphael: The Walters Story. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 2014-2016.

Provenance Duc d'Orléans, 1834, by commission; duchesse d'Orléans [date of acquisition unknown], by inheritance; duchesse d'Orléans Sale, January 18-20, 1853, no. 3 or 4; Lutteroth [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Georges Petit [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; William T. Walters, Baltimore, April 29, 1885, by purchase [George A. Lucas and Montaignac as agents]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1894, by inheritance; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Signature and Date] Cast through from model: BARYE / 1838; [Transcription] Inscribed on base: BRONZE D'UN SEUL JET SANS CISELURE coule a l'hotel d'Angevilliers par honore Gonon / et ses deux fils 1838; [Translation] Inscribed on base: Only bronze cast without carving cast at the Hotel D'Angevilliers by Honoré Gonon and his two sons 1838

Credit Acquired by William T. Walters, 1885