Tiger at Rest

Although Barye is often regarded as the foremost animal sculptor of the 19th century, he also worked closely with a number of painters. He studied with the artist Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, and in the late 1820s, he joined Eugène Delacroix in sketching animals at the Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes in Paris. This important city zoo was an invaluable resource for artists depicting the natural world. Barye exhibited watercolors at the beginning of his career, but it was only after his death that his oil paintings were discovered in his studio. In this unusually large example, Barye creates a fantastic image of a reclining tiger posed against the rocky, sandy terrain of the Apremont Gorge in the Fontainebleau forest.

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Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

Hector Brame; "Vente Barye," Hôtel Drouot, Paris, February 5-6, 1876, no. 95; Private collection, Reims [date of acquisition unknown], by purchase; Montaignac [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; William T. Walters, Baltimore, November 28, 1884, by purchase [George A. Lucas as agent]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1894, by inheritance; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.