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Eléphant écrasant un tigre
Translated as: Elephant crushing a tiger
(Elephant crushing a tiger)
Sculptor: Barye, Antoine Louis
An elephant tramples to death a tiger lying prostrate on a foliage-strewen forest floor.
History note: Leonard Spero, Walton Street, London, from whom purchased in March 1961.
Sir Ivor and Lady Batchelor Bequest
Weight: 14.37 kg
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (2015-04-27) by Batchelor, Ivor, Sir and Lady
19th Century
Production date:
circa
AD 1847
: Original model c. 1847. This version cast at unknown date after 1847.
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.4-2015), and some with human figures (e.g. M.5-2015). During Barye's lifetime, this model was cast in a small edition of only 15 examples. After his death, it was one of 78 foundry models purchased at Barye's 1876 studio sale by the Paris-based art dealer Hector-Henri-Clément Brame (1831-99) with the right to reproduce them. Brame produced a second small edition, also of 15 examples. While it is unclear whether the present version was cast during Barye's lifetime, it is possible as it does not have Brame's 'H' foundry stamp.
Base
Height 2.6 cm
Length 18.6 cm
Width 34.8 cm
Figure
Height 20.8 cm
Length 33.2 cm
Width 17.8 cm
Casting (process)
: Cast, bronze, patinated
Patination
Accession number: M.1-2015
Primary reference Number: 201335
Old object number: 2
Former loan number: AAL.235-2006
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
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IIIF Manifest
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Eléphant écrasant un tigre" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/201335 Accessed: 2024-11-02 21:40:59
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/201335
|title=Eléphant écrasant un tigre
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-02 21:40:59|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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<figure class="figure">
<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa40/M_1_2015_2_201804_amt49_dc2.jpg"
alt="Eléphant écrasant un tigre"
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<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Eléphant écrasant un tigre</figcaption>
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