Evening star., 1937-07-24

exhibition of bronZes by An
tome Louis Barye. the grea,
a French animal sculptor. in the
Walters Gallery, Baltimore, during
the current season. brings to attention
the collection of works by this master
70 be seen always here in the Cor
coran Gallery of Art
There are something less than 100
pieces in the Baltimore exhibition
whereas the collection in the CorCoran
Gallery of Art comprises 1903 Inter
estingly enough. both collections were
purchased by the late William T Wal
ters, one for himself and the City of
Baltimore, the other for his friend,
w. w. Corcoran. who had lately estab-
llShed a gallery in Washington. for
which he had commissioned him to
make purchases.
These purchases must have meant
a considerable outlay of money for by
then Barge was approaching the end
Of his life and had attained to a posi-
ton of high honor. 1t is everlaStingly
to the credit of Mr. Walters that he
was sufficiently certain of the lasting
quality Of the worth of the work to be
willing to risk the outlay both for him.
self and his friend No such collec-
tions exist in France or are to be found
elsewhere.
Barye has been joCularly referred to
as the godfather" of all our Ameri-
can animal sculptors, but he is much
more than that. he was the first to
put animal sculpture on a high plane.
and Of all "animaliers" the greatest
of them all
The story of his life is worth re-
ealing. Born in Paris in September,
the son of silversmith. he was ap-
prenticed at the age of l3 to an en-
graver named Fourier, who supplied
Napoleon I with all kinds of metal
work from buttons for military uni
forms to gold snuff boxes as regal gifts.
In 1872 he was conscripted into the
army, but fortunately assigned to the
topographic engineers, and when Paris
was evacuated in 1914 he returned to
his work as engraver and modeler.
Ambition was beginning even then to
stir within the young artisan, and bv
1917 he was so 'tormented by desire
to become a sculptor" that he entered
the studio Of Bosio and learned all he
could of him. Apparently this did
not take long, for within a wear We
f1nd Barye studying under the painter
Gros, from whose instruction he ac-
qulred larger conception of art as
medium Of expression. Then it was
that Tor three successive years he COM
peted unsucceSSfully for the much
coveted Prlx de Rome. Even then his
work was too far from the conven-
nonal to receive academic approval.
WHAT would have been the effect
upon Barye's art had he won
Inc PITY no one can say. but the
chances are that it would have devel-
oped along quite different lines As it
was, he went back to his craft. and
for eight years worked under or with
the goldsmith, Fauconnler. of the Rue
du Bac, purveyor by appointment TO
several of the nobility.
During these years he literally
found himself and his meter At
irst he modelled animals as ornaments
or articles of utility, clock decorations.
paper weights, etc. The Jardin des
plantes, which is much more than
the ordinary ZOO, became his atelier
and university. There he studied
living animals, but also their skeletons
and anatomy. He had an almost
abnormal appetite for knowledge to
satisfy, which he turned to the great
est Of all sources, Nature, but he was
glad also to learn from his fellow man
The keeper Of the animals at the
Jardin des Plantes became interested
in the Jealous young man, SO deter
mined to be an artist and to model
his beasts, and special privileges were
accorded When an animal died ne
was sent for at once and allowed to
dissect it. All of Baryes art was
founded on fact, but he was far from
a realist Indeed, the major portion
of his great volume of achievement
is ina ginative in conception. In the
galleries Of the Louvre. Barye studied
the works OF antiquity, and the classi-
ctsm Of his own time laid a finger
upon him.
All the time he was learning. work
ing with unabated ardor, keeping his
own counsel, asking no favors. In
1881 his career took turn. He eX-
hibited then his Tiger DevoWing
Crocodile" the merit of which was
Immediately recognized, Two years
later his Lion and Serpent" was
shown. acclaimed and purchased by
the government for placement IN the
Garden of the Tuillerles. But there
were still bitches to be crossed. The
academicians on the salon juries de-
clsred his sculpture the work of an
artisan rather than an artist, with
the same dlsdaln that they later turned
down Robins Age of Iron From
'35 TO Al, Barye made no offering to
the salon, but setting up his own
foundry, produced for the public at
large hundreds of small bronzeS of
animals, which found their way into
many private homes. To cover the
cost of the casting. molds were some
times given creditors to meet their
demands, and from which inferior
works were cast, much TO the sculptOrs
sorrow ana dlsmay In l847 Barye
did large Sitting Lion which the
Government acquired. and gradually
from then on there were for HIM
increasingly better days During the
last years OF his life commissions
came so fast that he could not ac-
eept them all. and the only lament
he IS ever said to have made, was
that these arrived after his powers
had begun 10 wane. customers come
st the moment l am closing the shut
terS," he said
Barye was great friend of Corot's
and occupied from time to time a lit
tie house at Barblzon-but he was
very reserved; no one knew him in
tmately, he stunned public notice
and vas always deeply engrossed IN
his art. Married twice. he had 10
children, no one of whom seems to