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Monument a Barye

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Monument a Barye

On 18 June 1894 the imposing monument to French sculptor and animalier Antoine-Louis Barye (1795-1875) by Stanislas Louis Bernier (1845 -1919) was…

On 18 June 1894 the imposing monument to French sculptor and animalier Antoine-Louis Barye (1795-1875) by Stanislas Louis Bernier (1845 -1919) was unveiled in the small park on the south-eastern tip of the Île Saint-Louis in Paris which is now named the , work having commenced on it in 1891.

The portrait medallion was carved from a plaster roundel by Laurent Honoré Marqueste (1848-1920). The bronze group atop is a 13 foot high posthumous cast of Bayre's 'Centaur and Lapith' (1846-48) also known as 'Theseus fighting the Centaur Binor.' The bronze wild cat on the foreground extension is a posthumous cast of Barye's 1832 'Lion and Serpent,' and the flanking figure groups in marble were two allegorical groups, 'Force Protecting Work' and 'Order Punishing Perversity,' which were later known simply as 'Force' and 'Order.' Each is composed of a seated heroic male figure and a standing youth, both posed against a reclining lion in 'Force' and a roaring tiger in 'Order.' These groups were reductions of Barye’s stone sculptures at the attic level of the Pavilion Denon of the Louvre.

In 1942 during the Second World War the bronze components were dismantled and melted down by the Germans, but were replaced with replicas in 2011 with the support of the Thai Cultural Foundation.

Bernier's original watercolour and ink design is in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, USA.

The present photograph appears to be a souvenir image probably purchased by Bose during his stay in Paris in 1911. Bose's interest in Barye may lie in his being the Master of Bose's great hero, Auguste Rodin HRSA.