Unlike many renditions, this limited after cast represents the Real Tiger Hunt of Barye. This very intense combat animal group was commissioned by the duc d'Orleans, 1834 and was the focal point of his surtout de table. As described in the book entitled "Untamed, The Art of Antoine Louis Barye - Two tigers attack an Asian elephant : one claws its way up the enormous creature's back, while the other seizes its hind leg. The Indian driver on the elephant's neck turns to defend himself with an ancus, or goad, as the two hunters lean over the sides of their dah to ward off the tigers with spears and daggers."
The original bronze is in the Walters Collection in Baltimore. The mould was destroyed after the cast was made and there is no other original in existence. We are the first in the world to make available to the public this rendition.
The mass of admirable works left by Barye entitles him to be regarded as one of the great animal life artists of the French school, and the refiner of a class of art which has attracted such men as Emmanuel Frémiet, Peter, Cain, and Gardet.
