Cet article a été publié en français le 23 avril 2009.
Barye Gardens is located on the Eastern extremity of Saint-Louis Island. It's a haven of peace as can be seen on these two pictures.
Here, there is a surprising statue. Indeed, it is dedicated, as are the gardens, to Louis-Antoine Barye, a famous animal sculptor (you can read a post about the rooster of Bastille translated into English on December 18th 2009). His portrait can be seen in the center of this work.
On the back of the statue, we learn that it is from 1891. It was a gift from his admirers from France and America :
Nevertheless, even if Barye was famous for his animal statues, the sculptur, strangely enough, is of two men. For instance see one of them on the picture below :
Should we conclude that men are to be classified with animals ? ... as a friend of mine suggested concerning the pet store of the BHV (see a post translated into English on January 8th 2010).
To add trouble to strife, about the message of the statue which looks very sexist. Both sculpted men are seated on wild beasts. And, whereas the lion looks very quiet...
on the other side, the lioness doesn't seem to accept her submission :
To be complete, we should add that a part of this group of statues, sculpted by Marqueste, has been cut out. On the upper part and in the oval part in the front, there were two bronze statues about the combat scene poured by Barye. To understand, you can observe a postcard published on the website Paris 1900.
As with many bronze statues, they may have disappeared during the Nazi occupation between 1940 and 1944. As this statue was a bit clumsy, nobody had the good idea to restore the original version.
This post was first published into French on April 23rd, 2009.
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