Tiger in Repose

Antoine-Louis Barye. Jaguar Discovering a Snake, ca. 1840. Watercolor and gouache on cream-colored wove paper, 11 3/8 x 16 ¾ in. (28.9 x 42.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Purchased by Special Subscription, 10.93

Antoine-Louis Barye. Tiger at Rest, ca. 1865. Oil on wood, 9 7/8 x 13 in. (25 x 33 cm). Signed (lower right): BARYE; wax seal of the artist’s estate sale (on back). Private collection, Switzerland. Image: 19th & 20th Century Paintings and Drawings, exh. cat., Marc de Montebello Fine Art, Inc., New York, spring 1993

Antoine-Louis Barye. Tiger at Rest, ca. 1850–70. Oil and charcoal on paper, laid down on canvas, 12 ¼ x 18 3/8 in. (31 x 46.5 cm). Signed (lower left): BARYE. The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Mass., 1995.640

Antoine-Louis Barye. Tiger Resting, ca. 1855–60. Oil on paper, laid down on canvas, 9 ¾ x 13 in. (24.7 x 33 cm). Signed (lower left): BARYE; wax seal of the artist’s estate sale (on stretcher). Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Gift of Henry Schnakenberg, 1968.130

Tiger in Repose

Infrared Reflectogram

Tiger in Repose
Artist:Antoine-Louis Barye (French, Paris 1796–1875 Paris)
Date:ca. 1850–65
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:10 3/4 × 14 in. (27.3 × 35.6 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of Eugene V. Thaw, 2015
Accession Number:2015.438
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 801
This tiger, relaxed yet alert, is based on animals that Barye saw at the menagerie of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, where he often drew from the 1820s onward, sometimes in the company of Delacroix. Barye was celebrated primarily as a sculptor of animal subjects, which he rendered with compelling physiognomic accuracy. He was also a prolific watercolorist, but he only made around one hundred paintings, which he seems to have kept for himself. There is a version of this composition in the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford.

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