Antoine-Louis Barye (Paris 1795 - 1875)

Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge, New York, until 1961.

Dating to 1841, Python enlaçant une gazelle was conceived as a pendant to Python étouffant un crocodile. The model was first offered in Besse’s 1844 catalogue under the title Serpent et gazelle, accompanied by the remark: “Encore une charmante habitante des forêts qui va mourir sous la dent venimeuse d’un vilain serpent.” Lifetime casts are rare. After the sculptor’s death, the model was edited by the renowned Barbedienne Foundry.¹

¹M. Poletti and A. Richarme, Barye: Catalogue raisonné des sculptures, Paris 2000, p. 353, no. A 214