"Surtout de table": Bear Hunt

Description This sculpture of a 16th-century German hunt was placed next to the "Wild Bull Hunt" (Walters 27.178) near one end of the centerpiece. Two hunters, one on foot and the other mounted on a rearing horse, are accompanied by mastiffs as they attack the bears. The firm of Richard et Fressange was originally assigned to cast this sculpture, but, as with the "Elk Hunt," it was sent to Honoré Gonon, who completed it, using the lost-wax method.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
6/14/1974	Treatment	cleaned
5/23/1976	Treatment	repaired
8/10/1978	Treatment	repaired
8/11/1978	Treatment	cleaned; loss compensation; repaired; coated
7/28/1980	Examination	examined for condition
7/28/1980	Treatment	cleaned; repaired; loss compensation
12/08/1980	Examination	examined for condition
9/20/1991	Treatment	cleaned; coated; repaired; loss compensation
1/01/2002	Examination	examined for condition
1/25/2007	Technical Report	X-ray florescence

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, 1844, by commission; duchesse d'Orleans [date of acquisition unknown], by inheritance; duchesse d'Orleans Sale, Paris, January 18-20, 1853, no. 1; Count Anatole Demidoff [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; San Donato Sale, Paris, March 22-24, 1870, no. 1535; William Tilden Blodgett, New York [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; William T. Walters, Baltimore, April 27, 1876; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1894, by inheritance; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Signature and Date]: BARYE / 1838; [Transcription] Inscribed: FONDU A L'HOTEL D'ANGEVILLIERS. / PAR HONORE GONON ET SES DEUX FILS; [Translation] Inscribed: Cast at the Hotel D'Angevilliers. / By Honoré Gonon and his two sons; [Number] Painted inside in white: W / 46

Credit Acquired by William T. Walters, 1876