Pair of Candlesticks with Sleeping Pheasants

Description Each candlestick takes the form of a sleeping pheasant on a branch of a leafless tree. Barye occasionally incorporated birds such as pheasants and storks into his decorative works. These pieces were cast after Barye's death by the bronze founder Hector Brame, who purchased the models at the artist's estate sale in 1876. The hard-paste porcelain bases were probably made in Paris.

Provenance William T. / Henry Walters Collection, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Signature] Very sharp, cast through from model (?): BARYE; [Mark] Arrangement of five dots in domino pattern on underside of base.

Credit Acquired by William T. or Henry Walters