Sotheby's

The Orientalist Sale

London | 19 Apr 2016, 02:30 PM | L16100

LOT 22
PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED COLLECTION
ANTOINE-LOUIS BARYE
FRENCH
1796 - 1875
CHEVAL TURC NO2 (ANTÉRIEUR GAUCHE LEVÉ, TERRASSE CARRÉE) (TURKISH
HORSE NO2)
signed: BARYE, stamped: BARYE 8 and numbered: 326 in black ink to the underside
bronze, rich dark brown patina
29.5 by 31.5cm., 11½ by 12¼in.

ESTIMATE 50,000-70,000 GBP

PROVENANCE
Sale: Sotheby's, London, 24 November 1999, lot 23
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

CATALOGUE NOTE
'Le Michel-Ange de la Ménagerie' was the tribute given to Barye by the celebrated French art critic Théophile Gautier.
Considered the inventor and undisputed master of animalier sculpture, Barye created an exceptional oeuvre parallel
to that of his friend, the painter Eugène Delacroix (lot 23). Barye used animal subjects to represent the extremes of
power and emotion which were central to the Romantic movement, thereby challenging the accepted hierarchy of
subject matter in the French artistic establishment. The Cheval turc is generally regarded as the model which most
powerfully epitomises his unique sculptural vision.

Barye learnt his sculptural technique in the studio of François-Joseph Bosio, a favourite sculptor of the Napoleonic
court. He continued his studies under the painter Antoine-Jean Gros, the successor of neo-classicist Jacques-Louis
David. But perhaps the most formative studies Barye undertook were his own visits to the Paris zoo, the Jardin des
Plantes, where he sketched the animals directly from nature. As an emblem of Romanticism the Cheval turc finds its
painted counterpart in Delacroix's canvases, for example in the rearing horse in his Massacre at Chios in the Louvre,
Paris.

Infused as it is with the Romantic spirit of Barye's own age, the Cheval turc also recalls the Antique equestrian group
of Marcus Aurelius and the Renaissance precedent of Leonardo's drawings of a rearing horse, studies for a
monument to Francesco Sforza which was never erected. As a talented draughtsman Barye produced thousands of
drawings and the strong silhouettes of his compositions, particularly evident in the present model, derive from his
draughtsman's sense of shape and profile which he expertly transposed into three dimensions. The Cheval Turc
triumphantly presents Barye's supreme grasp of anatomy and drama and, as the author of the 1844 Besse catalogue
wrote, 'the only feeling that one can experience upon seeing it is a deep admiration both for one of nature's most
noble creatures and the talent of its delineator'.

The success of the Cheval Turc persuaded Barye to issue four different versions of the model, two with rectangular
bases (as in the present example) and with either front right or left leg raised, and two with oval bases, again with front
right or left leg raised. Cheval turc No. 2 was, in fact, the first model edited, with Cheval turc No. 1, a slightly less
stylised model, being offered as a new model in 1874. Created circa 1840, the present design is described as Cheval
marchant in the 1844 Besse catalogue, and the variants with front right and left leg raised respectively are presented
as pendants in Barye's 1860 catalogue.
The present bronze is a particularly fine and rare lifetime cast with a beautiful patina. It is stamped BARYE 8, thereby
firmly locating it within Barye's own lifetime.

RELATED LITERATURE
William R. Johnston, Simon Kelly, Untamed. The Art of Antoine-Louis Barye, Munich, London and New York, 2006,
no. 57, pp. 158-9
Michel Poletti, Alain Richarme, Barye. Catalogue raisonné des sculptures, Paris, 2000, no. A128, pp. 265-266