Antoine-Louis BARYE (Paris, 1795 - 1875) Lion with snake Bronze with shaded brown-green patina Antique cast, signed 'BARYE' on the base Small star surmounted by n° 1 on the terrace Height : 35 cm Lion and snake, bronze, brown-green patina, signed, by A.-L. Barye H. 13.77 in. Provenance: Violet family, owners of BYRRH drinks since at least the end of the 19th century; Then by descent ; Private collection, France Exhibitions : Perhaps the Paris Universal Exhibition, 1855 Bibliography: related : Michel Poletti, Alain Richarme, Barye, le catalogue raisonné des sculptures, Paris, 2000, model listed under n°A 51, p. 174 Musée du Louvre, Département des Sculptures du Moyen Age de la Renaissance et des Temps modernes, Sculpture française II: Renaissance et Temps modernes, Paris, 1998, p. 37 Isabelle Leroy-Jay Lemaistre, Béatrice Tupinier-Barrillon (eds.), La griffe et la dent : Antoine Louis Barye (1795-1875), sculpteur animalier, cat. exp. Paris, musée du Louvre, 14 October 1996 - 13 January 1997, Lyon, Musée des beaux-arts, 16 October 1997-11 January 1998), p. 39-44 Related works: Antoine Louis Barye, Lion au serpent, plaster group, 1832, signed and dated "BARYE / 1832" on the plinth of the terrace, H. 135 x 178,5 x 101 cm, Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts, inv. no. H 2457 Antoine Louis Barye, Lion au serpent (Lion des Tuileries), 1832, bronze, signed "BARYE / 1832" on the front of the terrace, bears the founder's stamp "AD" near the lion's tail, bears the founder's mark "FONDU PAR HONORÉ GONON / ET SES DEUX FILS / 1835" on the reverse, H. 135 x W. 178 x D. 96 cm, Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. no. RF 1516 Launched by the success of the Paris Salon of 1831, Antoine Louis Barye (1796-1875) confirmed the expectations raised at the following exhibition by presenting an impressive plaster cast of The Lion and the Snake. Although this type of episode had already been illustrated by painters, it was unprecedented for a sculptor. The work is as striking for the violence of its subject as for its virtuosity and realism. This naturalistic approach coincided with the arrival of five African lions and eight lionesses at the Museum's Menagerie following the French takeover of Algiers on 4 November 1830. Conceived in an atmosphere charged with tension, a political interpretation of the work has also been proposed, identifying the lion as a symbol of the new regime of the July Monarchy - born under the auspices of this zodiac sign - which in 1830 put down all attempts at revolt. The subject of our bronze occupies a singular place in the sculptor's career, since its success led the king to commission a marble copy, which was eventually abandoned in favour of a bronze version, destined to be installed in front of the Tuileries Palace in 1836. Our rare, perhaps unique, proof is a reduction of slightly less than a third of the bronze copy in the Musée du Louvre, cast by Honoré Gonon in 1835. It precisely reproduces all the details of the plaster cast of the 1833 Salon, now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon. At the sale after Barye's death in 1876, Hector Brame bought this version, which is distinguished by its naturalistic terrace, for a posthumous edition that would only exist in half size (H. 58 cm). There is no formal trace of our bronze, which was cast in exceptional quality, in the literature on the Lion des Tuileries model. At most, we can mention that the Atelier de Barye cast a few rare examples between 1857 and 1875. It is worth noting, however, that at the Exposition Universelle in 1855, the sculptor presented a unique proof described as "Le Lion des Tuileries, en raccourci" ("The Lion of the Tuileries, foreshortened"). Our version has an unusual stamp showing the number 1 surmounted by a star. Could this be the personal stamp of a major collector, or perhaps a mark associated with the 1855 Universal Exhibition? Antoine-Louis BARYE (Paris, 1795 - 1875)