
Michael Lake
Head of Department
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Head of Department
Provenance:
Acquired by a private UK collector, Sotheby's, London, 19th Century Sculpture, 29 November 1991, lot 25.
The sculptor produced a series of four small scale elephant models, all of which proved popular. The present bronze can be identified as the third model and was listed, under Nouveaux Modeles, as number 211 in Barye's final catalogue of 1865 from the Quai des Celestins 4. Of the four models produced, the Senegalese elephant is the most spirited and powerful in its sense of momentum and is notable in that only one of its four legs actually touch the ground. The model was subsequently sold to the Barbedienne foundry and edited in two sizes. The current lot is in the rarer larger size known only to be cast by Barbedienne.
Literature
M. Poletti & A. Richarme, Barye Catalogue raisonné des sculptures, Paris, 2000, pp. 251-253, A 119.