In 1831 Antoine-Louis Barye exhibited at Tiger and Gavial's. His inspiration came from Les Jardins des Plantes, the Paris zoo where he had studied animals in the flesh, rather than from heroic imagination. The animals were the subject of his works in their own right and not subservient to some human story. The accuracy of his work even led one critic to remark: The reality of this piece is so vivid that one feels followed by the odour of the menagerie Barye's work was in tune with the movement which was taking place in all forms of art, towards the realistic and romantic and away from the use of clumsy classical. This superbly illustrated book not only describes the work of Barye and artists traditionally associated with the animalier school, but includes the work of Troubetzkoy, Bugatti, Pompon, the American, Haseltine, such artists as John Willis Good and Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, and brings us to the many talented artists of the present day, Kenworthy, Timym and Yarrow among them. There is practical information too; the reader learns the technical processes involved in modelling and casting, the importance of colour and patination and the problems to be found in the market place. There is an index of sculptors and founders which includes some seven hundred names. This is the ideal book both for the collector, people who love animals in art and those whose living requires a sound knowledge of the work of les animaliers and their successors.
The Author
Christopher Payne is the son of a Midlands antiques dealer and was brought up among the more conventional antiques pieces from the 18th and early 19th century. After leaving university he joined Sotheby's where, after some years concentrating on pre-1830 furniture, he moved to Sotheby's Belgravia specialising in 19th and early 20th century pieces and here his responsibilities included sculpture. He became fascinated with the largely uncharted sea of European furniture and is the author of 19th Century European Furniture published by the Antique Collectors' Club.
He is a departmental director of the Furniture Department at Sotheby's. He regularly contributes articles to Antique Collecting and gives talks and lectures to both students and institutions.