Studies of Proportions of a Dead Elephant

Description Barye's ability to depict animals accurately was based on his sound knowledge of their anatomy derived from years of study of their bodies, both alive and dead. He regularly attended dissections in the Amphitheater of Comparative Anatomy at the Jardin des Plantes, the botanical and zoological garden in Paris. In this drawing, he has sketched an Asian elephant from different vantage points, meticulously recording its measurements.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
6/24/1980	Examination	examined for loan
1/01/2002	Treatment	examined for exhibition; cleaned; re-housed; mounted; other

Exhibitions

• Sculptors' Drawings Over Six Centuries, 1400-1950. The Drawing Center, New York; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston. 1981.
• 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.

Provenance Mme Vildieu-Barye; Fabius Frères, Paris; Walters Art Museum, 1949, by purchase.

Credit Museum purchase, 1949