Creative Commons License
Two Heads of a Lioness
(18th and 19th Centuries )
Barye's friend the Count of Rigny, a French admiral, donated two African lions to the Jardin des Plantes. One, a lioness, died in October 1828, and the other, a male lion, perished the following June. In this drawing, Barye has carefully recorded the structure of the lioness's jaw, both open and closed. In each case the bones as well as the outline of the lioness's skin, almost like and Xray.
After the death of the second lion, the French painter Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) sent the following message to his friend Barye: "The lion is dead. Come at once. It is time for us to act." Together, they observed and recorded the dissection of the animal.
On the verso is another drawing of a lioness's head.
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.
Mme Vildieu (born Georgine-Virginie-Henriette Barye); Fabius Frères, Paris; Walters Art Museum, 1949, by purchase.
Exhibitions
| 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. |
Geographies
France, Paris (Place of Origin)
Measurements
4 x 5 1/2 in. (10.2 x 14 cm)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, 1949
Location in Museum
Not on view
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.
37.2037