Le duc d'Orléans (The Duke of Orleans)

Barye modeled his equestrian portrait of the duc d'Orleans shortly after the latter's tragically premature death in 1842.  A posthumous homage to the most important patron of his early career, Barye may also have hoped the work would secure him a commission for a monumental version.  Poletti and Richarme, authors of the Catalogue Raisonné on the artist, estimate the total number of lifetime epreuves of this work to be less than fifty.

Antoine-Louis Barye is today considered to have been France’s greatest sculptor of animals, though it was many years before he gained recognition during his own lifetime. The earliest and most famous sculptor of the French animalier school, Barye endured poverty for many years, struggling for commissions and acceptance while remaining true to his naturalistic vision of animals in realistic movement and action.

He laid the basis of his extensive knowledge of animal forms while employed by a goldsmith making models of animals in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris (1823-31). He was considered a member of the Romantic school, particularly because of his preference for rendering violent movement and tense posture in his animal subjects. He did the pediment sculpture of Napoleon that dominates the relief of History and the Arts on the Pavilion de l'Horloge of the Louvre and an equestrian statue of Napoleon at Ajaccio, the Emperor's birthplace in Corsica.