Camel: M.6-1997

Titles

Camel

Maker(s)

Sculptor: Barye, Antoine Louis (After)

Entities

• Animal figure

Categories

• Sculpture

Description

Bronze, cast

Notes

History note: Purchased in 1949 by Lt. Col. the Hon. M.T. Boscawen, DSO, MC (1892-1958); his sister, the Hon. Mrs Pamela Sherek

Legal notes

Bequeathed by Mrs Pamela Sherek, from the collection of the late Lt. Col. the Hon. M.T. Boscawen, DSO, MC, in his memory.

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1995) by Sherek, Pamela

Dating

19th Century, second half#
Circa 1850 CE - 1900 CE

Note

Dubbed the ‘Michelangelo of the Menagerie’ by art critic Théophile Gautier (1811–72), Barye was a Romantic realist artist based in Paris who popularised the genre of animal sculpture from the 1830s onwards. Animals were very low down in the traditional Academic hierarchy of accepted subject-matter for artists, and the term animalier (an artist specialising in animals) was coined by critics specifically for Barye as a pejorative appellation. Barye was a successful monumental sculptor, but also created hundreds of small-scale models of animals for reproduction in bronze editions for middle-class homes. His last sales catalogue of 1865 listed over 230 compositions available to order as edition bronze statuettes. Keen for accuracy, Barye studied ancient animal sculptures as well as live beasts in the Musée d’Histoire Naturelle’s menagerie, copied zoological specimens in the Musée d’Anatomie Comparée and made anatomical drawings of dead lions. Bayre’s animal portraits include single animal figures (e.g. M.19-2015) and groups of predators with prey, or in combat with each other (e.g. M.1-2015), and some with human figures (e.g. M.5-2015).

School or Style

Animalier