Barye delighted in depicting wild animals in unexpected poses. This one of a series of watercolors in which large cats laze on their backs or roll with abandon. Here, the tiger pauses and regards the viewer. Freely handled, the paint has been sponged and scumbled to create a rought rocky landscape whose forms echo the curves of the animal's body.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Tiger Rolling on Its Back
Artist:Antoine-Louis Barye (French, Paris 1795–1875 Paris)
Date:1810–75
Medium:Watercolor on heavy wove paper
Dimensions:Sheet: 9 3/16 x 11 5/8 in. (23.3 x 29.5cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929
Accession Number:29.100.586
Signature: Lower right: BARYE
Charles Binder (French)by 1860; his sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, April 8, 1873, lot 8; Cottier & Co.; Louisine W. Havemeyer
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The H. O. Havemeyer Collection," March 10–November 2, 1930.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," May 21–August 12, 2001.
Zieseniss B19
The H.O. Havemeyer Collection: Catalogue of Paintings, Prints, Sculpture and Objects of Art. Privately published, New York, 1931, p. 182.
Charles Otto Zieseniss Les Aquarelles de Barye, étude critique et catalogue raisonné. Paris, 1954, cat. no. B 19, fig. no. pl. 12, p. 65, ill.
The H.O. Havemeyer Collection. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2nd edition. New York, 1958, cat. no. 58, p. 12.
The Second Empire, 1852-1870: Art in France under Napoléon III. Exh. cat., October 1, 1978 - July 2, 1979. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Detroit Institute of Arts, Réunion des Musées Nationaux - Grand Palais, 1978, cat. no. VII-3, pp. 363-364 (ill, ill.
Treasures from the Metropolitan Museum of Art: French Art from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century. Exh. cat., Yokohama Museum of Art. Denys Sutton, Yomiyuri Shimbun, Yokohama, 1989, In English version of catalogue, reproduced on p. 157., cat. no. 102, p. 161, ill.
Christopher Finch Nineteenth-Century Watercolors. Abbeville Press, New York, London, Paris, 1991, fig. no. 194, pp. 147, 148 (il, ill.
Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, Gary Tinterow Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat.: March 27-June 20. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1993, pp. 72-73, note 7; Appendix 39, pp. 296 (ill.),, ill.
The Wild Kingdom of Antoine-Louis Bayre 1795-1875.. Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, 1994, pp. 29, 118, cat. no. 27, p. 51, illus.
Near East to Far West Fictions of French and American Colonialism. Western Passages, 11, Denver, CO, 2023.
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