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Image for "Surtout de table": Python Killing a Gnu
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"Surtout de table": Python Killing a Gnu Thumbnail
"Surtout de table": Python Killing a Gnu Thumbnail
"Surtout de table": Python Killing a Gnu Thumbnail
"Surtout de table": Python Killing a Gnu Thumbnail

"Surtout de table": Python Killing a Gnu

Antoine-Louis Barye (French, 1795 - 1875) (Artist)
1834-1839
bronze with warm brown patina over areas of metallic flake or powdered surface with traces of gilding
(18th and 19th Centuries )

Barye was fascinated by large snakes and portrayed them in sculptures and paintings. Two Javanese pythons were sent to the Jardin des Plantes in 1838. In this sculpture, a python has entwined itself around the body of a gnu, an African antelope also known as a wildebeest. This sculpture is one of four animal combats that originally stood at the base of the triumphal arch supporting the "Tiger Hunt." Two of the other combats, "Eagle Attacking a Wounded Ibex" and "Lion Attacking a Boar," are now in the Louvre Museum; the fourth, "Tiger Devouring a Large Antelope," belongs to the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Inscription

[Signature] Cast through from model: BARYE.

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.

Duc d'Orléans, 1834, by commission; duchesse d'Orléans Sale, Paris, January 18-20, 1853, no. 2; Alphonse de Hautpoul; Maurice Mallet; Henry Walters, Baltimore, November 19, 1906, by purchase [George A. Lucas as agent]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

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.
1991 Un âge d'or des arts décoratifs: 1814-1848. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris.
1980-1981 The Romantics to Rodin: French Nineteenth Century Sculpture from North American Collections. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis; The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis.

Conservation

Date Description Narrative
10/15/1974 Treatment other
12/12/1979 Examination examined for loan
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Geographies

France, Paris (Place of Origin)

Measurements

8 1/2 x 11 1/2 x 9 1/2 in. (21.6 x 29.2 x 24.1 cm)

Credit Line

Acquired by Henry Walters, 1906

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.

27.152

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Hours

  • Wednesday—Sunday: 10 a.m.—5 p.m.
  • Thursday: 1–8 p.m.
  • Monday—Tuesday: Closed

Location

600 N. Charles St.
Baltimore, MD
21201

Phone

410-547-9000

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