Antoine-Louis Barye was a French sculptor working in the animalier style. Best known for his Neoclassical bronze statues featuring exotic animals in repose, engaged in battle, and in mythological situations, Barye began his artistic life working and studying under prominent French sculptors and painters before training as a goldsmith. His lively sculptures are considered an important link between 19th-century Romanticism and Realism, and Barye enjoyed numerous awards and prestigious commissions from bourgeois French families. Born in Paris, France on September 24, 1796, he discovered his predilection for capturing the movements and form of animals by observing those on display at the Jardin des Plantes zoo in his native city, often accompanied...