Alfred Barye

Alfred Barye "Le Fils" or Alf Barye (Paris, France, 21 January 1839 - Paris, France, 1882) was a French sculptor of the Belle Epoque. He was a student of his father, the artist Antoine-Louis Barye. In cooperation with Emile-Coriolan Guillemin, Barye did the artwork for "The Arab Warrior Knight on Horseback". Other works of his were animal bronzes as well as Oriental subjects. At his father's request, he signed his work as "fils" to differentiate his work from his father's.
As was his father Antoine Louis, Alfred Barye became Ferdinand Philippe d'Orleans' favorite sculptor, and later the quasi-official sculptor of Napoleon III.
He signed many of his sculptural works Barye or A. Barye, the same signature that was used by his father. This causes as much confusion today as it did during his lifetime and many of Alfred's models are mistakenly attributed to and sold as his father's works. After much family disagreement and at the insistence of his father, he began signing his work Alf. Barye, and later A. Barye Fils. It has been suggested but never confirmed that Alfred Barye was responsible for quite a few unauthorized life time casts of his father's works. Many of the works mistakenly attributed to Antoine Louis Barye are actually by the brilliant son Alfred Barye. The young Alfred worked for a long time in his father's studio and while he conceived and created the works himself, his father appropriated them by signing them with the name Antoine Louis Barye and preventing his son from making his works with the Barye signature. Growing up Alfred began to rebel more and more of the violence of Antoine Louis Barye. Father and son did not speak to each other for several years. The Barye rebellion finds a symbolic moment in the sharing of artistic researches with another son of art Emile Guillemin with whom he formed a strong friendship and recipient esteem.
Museum
Barye's bronzes are now in many museums' collections:
Louvre Museum, Paris
Musee d'Orsay, Paris
Brooklyn Museum, New York City
Fogg Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Sao Paulo Museum of Modern Art, Brasil
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
Exhibitions
Alfred Barye did several exhibitions in Paris from 1864 to 1882.
The Salon de Louvre Museum, Paris, 1864 through 1882
The racehorse Sir Walter Scott, 1865
Italian jester, 1882
Related pages
Louvre
Bibliography
Patricia Janis Broder, Bronzes of the American West, H. N. Abrams, 1974
News, Volumi 29-30, Baltimore Museum of Art, 1967
Musee du Louvre. Departement des sculptures, Francoise Baron, Corinne Jankowiak, Christine Vivet, Genevieve Bresc-Bautier, Isabelle Lemaistre, Guilhem Scherf, Jean-Charles Agboton-Jumeau, Sculpture francaise: Renaissance et temps modernes, Reunion des musees nationaux, 1998
Theophile Thore, Les Salons: Salons de 1864-1868, H. Lamertin, 1893
Stanislas Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'Ecole francaise, Volume 8, Champion, 1921
Dictionnaire universel des contemporains contenant toutes les ..., Volume 1, 1870
Musee du Louvre (Paris). Departement des sculptures du Moyen Age, de la Renaissance et des temps modernes, Musee national du Louvre (Paris). Departement des sculptures, Sculpture francaise, Reunion des musees nationaux, 1998
The Sculpture Journal, Volume 6, Public Monuments and Sculpture Association, 2001
The University of Rochester Library Bulletin, Volumi 38-43, University of Rochester Library, 1985
The Sao Paulo Collection: From Manet to Matisse, Mazzotta, 1989
Arlene Hirschfelder, Paulette F. Molin, Yvonne Wakim, American Indian Stereotypes in the World of Children: A Reader and Bibliography
Fogg Art Museum Handbooks, Editions 4, Harvard University, 1983
Pierre Kjellberg, Les Bronzes du XIXe Siecle, 1986, (p. 369, "the Arab warrior knight on horseback")
Eleonora Luciano, William U. Eiland, Georgia Museum of Art, Animals in bronze: the Michael and Mary Erlanger collection of animailer bronzes, Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, 1996
Elisabeth Hardouin-Fugier, Le peintre et l'animal en France au XIXe siecle, Editions de l'Amateur, 2001
Harold Berman, Bronzes; Sculptors & Founders, 1800-1930, Volume 2, Abage, 1976
Yves Devaux, L'univers des bronzes et des fontes ornementales: chefs-d'oeuvre et curiosites, 1850-1920, Editions Pygmalion, 1978
Arts Magazine, Volume 17, Art Digest Incorporated, 1942
Theophile Thore, 1864-1868
Other websites
"Antique Arabian Horse Sculptures", part II, Judith Wich-Wenning, Tutto Arabi Magazine, p.174-176, www.tuttoarabi.com
A patinated bronze figure of a horse in the manner of Alfred Louis Barye late 19th century height 23 3/4 in. 60.5 cm, Paris. The model is closely related to the celebrated Cheval Turc created by the master French animalier in 1857, price realized 6,250 USD, 22 October 2014, Sothebys New York
Rhinoceros, bronze, rich green and brown patina, 9.7 by 14.9cm., 3 3/4 by 6in., price realized 7000 GBP, 04 December 2013, Sothebys London
1839 births
1882 deaths
French sculptors