If any French bronziste can deservedly be known as the real father of France's venerable tradition of animaliers, that artist is surely Antoine Louis Barye.

After the collapse of the Napoleonic era, Barye turned from his initial livelihood as an engraver to sculpture. He learned much of his trade from studying classical sculpture at the Louvre. However it was his contact with animals at Paris' Jardin de Plantes that influenced him most deeply and actually gave form to his career.

During Barye's years as an active artist, he sculpted a very wide range of animals, both domestic and wild. All are rendered in a very realistic, naturalistic shape. Many appear upon a small, oval, bronze plinth or base.

Barye lived in some of Paris' most turbulent times. He was born just after the execution of Robespierre and lived until the height of the Deuxième République. His career found him both in conflict with the academic establishment and, ultimately, as a member of it. His impact on France's animal sculpting tradition was enormous, and he deserves his title of father of the animalier tradition.