 Antoine-Louis Barye
Artist at the Zoo
(pronounced AN-twon Lou-ee Bare-EE)
French, 1796-1875
Antoine-Louis Barye
Antoine-Louis Barye was a French artist who went to the zoo nearly every day. With his sketchpad in hand, he visited the wild animals to observe how they snarled, how they strode about, and how they swished their tails. He studied the way the ferocious lions pounced, how the massive elephants lay down to sleep, and how the boas coiled themselves around the branches of a tree.
 In 1830, a new Bengal tiger arrived at the Paris zoo from India and before long, Barye was using the tiger as a subject for his paintings. In some of Barye’s watercolors, the tiger stalks its prey, alert to the slightest motion or noise. In others, he rolls about playfully on the ground, oblivious of all but the pleasure of scratching his back.
In order to portray the tiger accurately in a variety of positions, Barye studied the animal’s anatomy inside and out. He attended lectures about tigers and read all the books he could find. Since he could not safely examine a living tiger, he inspected animal skeletons and animals that had been stuffed and displayed in the zoo’s museum. Whenever an animal died, the zoo’s Keeper of Ferocious Animals notified Barye right away and gave him permission to measure the animal and study its musculature and bone structure at close range.
Barye never portrayed the zoo animals in their cages. Instead, he created imaginary natural habitats for them, inspired by the forests, flatlands, and rocky ravines outside of Paris. Barye’s simple wilderness hikes with sketchpad in hand provided him with all the scenery he needed to provide a convincing environment for his zoo animals.
Bayre’s skill in depicting animals was so impressive that he became known as the “Michelangelo of the menagerie.” As a young man, he worked for a goldsmith designing small animals to decorate paperweights and clocks. As a mature artist, he created larger tabletop sculptures out of bronze. Even though Barye had never witnessed wild beasts engaged in fierce combat, he was able to capture and portray their raw animal instinct.
Come to The Baltimore Museum of Art and see Barye’s bronze animals fighting for survival as they bite, pounce, and dig in their claws. In the BMA galleries, you’ll see a lion crushing a serpent under its paw, a crocodile devouring an antelope, an eagle swooping down on a heron, and a panther seizing a stag.
YOUR TURN
Barye studied animals tirelessly until he became an expert in portraying their every move and mood. You can do the same.
1. Choose an animal that you can observe either around your neighborhood or at the zoo. Watch how it moves.
2. Read everything you can find about how the animal looks, where it lives, and what it eats. Visit a tiger online at natzoo.si.edu Click on Animals/Great cats.
3. Sketch the animal in various positions.
4. Use your sketches to help you make a final drawing, painting, or sculpture of the animal.
Create a background setting to show where the animal lives.
5. Be sure to exhibit your work so that others can enjoy it.
Linda Andre
Program Specialist for Teacher Services
The Sylvia Friedberg Chair for Museum Education
The Baltimore Museum of Art
http://artbma.org/home.html
Both Barye watercolors and the sculpture are part of The George A. Lucas Collection,
purchased with funds from the State of Maryland, Laurence and Stella Bendann Fund,
and contributions from individuals, foundations, and corporations throughout the Baltimore community.
BMA 1996.48.18806, BMA 1996.48.18811, and BMA 1996.46.33. |
