Alfred Barye

Alfred Barye "Le Fils" or Alf Barye (Paris, France, 21 January 1839 – Paris, France, 1882) was a French sculptor of the Belle Époque. He was a student of his father, the artist Antoine-Louis Barye. In cooperation with Émile 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 Barye, Alfred Barye became Ferdinand Philippe d'Orléans favorite sculptor, and later the quasi-official sculptor of Napoleon III.

He signed many of his sculptural works as Barye or A. Barye, the same signature used by his father. This has caused 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 as Alf. Barye, and later A. Barye Fils. It has been suggested, but never confirmed, that Alfred Barye was responsible for quite a few unauthorized lifetime casts of his father’s works. Many works mistakenly attributed to Antoine-Louis Barye are actually by his brilliant son, Alfred Barye.

The young Alfred worked for a long time in his father's studio; 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 using the Barye signature. Growing up, Alfred began to rebel against 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 Alfred’s artistic collaboration with another son of art, Émile Guillemin, with whom he formed a strong friendship and mutual esteem.

Museum

Barye's bronzes are now in many museums' collections:

• Louvre Museum, Paris
• Musée 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
• São 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
• Musée du Louvre. Département des sculptures, Françoise Baron, Corinne Jankowiak, Christine Vivet, Geneviève Bresc-Bautier, Isabelle Lemaistre, Guilhem Scherf, Jean-Charles Agboton-Jumeau, Sculpture française: Renaissance et temps modernes, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1998
• Théophile Thoré, Les Salons: Salons de 1864–1868, H. Lamertin, 1893
• Stanislas Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'École française, Volume 8, Champion, 1921
• Dictionnaire universel des contemporains contenant toutes les ..., Volume 1, 1870
• Musée du Louvre (Paris). Département des sculptures du Moyen Age, de la Renaissance et des temps modernes, Musée national du Louvre (Paris). Département des sculptures, Sculpture française, Réunion des musées 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 São 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 Siècle, 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 siècle, Éditions 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'œuvre et curiosités, 1850–1920, Éditions Pygmalion, 1978
• Arts Magazine, Volume 17, Art Digest Incorporated, 1942
• Théophile Thoré, 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., 3¾ by 6in., price realized 7000 GBP, 04 December 2013, Sothebys London