Antoine-Louis Barye

Un Indien monte sur un éléphant écrasant un tigre is a rare model and known casts are in important collections, such as the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore (inv. no. 2.149) and the Louvre Museum in Paris (inv. no. 886).

In this lively bronze, Barye successfully captured the dynamic energy of the scene. The composition derives from Barye’s Chasse au tigre (Tiger Hunt), which he designed for the surtout de table, an ornamental centrepiece, for the Duke of Orléans, and which is now in the Walters Art Gallery (inv. no. 27.176). In the present model, Barye simplified the overall design and retained one of the three figures, sitting in the neck of the elephant, and turning away from the scene below. Barye also created a third version of the model for the Duke of Montpensier in 1847, titled Éléphant écrasant un tigre (Elephant crushing a tiger), without any figures seated on top of the elephant.

Like the previous lot, the present bronze is stamped BARYE 5, which confirms that this is a lifetime cast by the artist. Such punch marks were used by the artist during the period of his partnership with the entrepreneur Emile Martin in the 1840s and 1850s; the 1847 Martin-Barye catalogue states that each bronze would be stamped and numbered.

RELATED LITERATURE

A. Richarme and M. Poletti, Barye: Catalogue raisonné des sculptures, Paris, 2000, p. 90, no. F 20