Lion au serpent, Salon de 1833 (Lion crushing a snake, Salon 1833)

In 1889, to coincide with the major retrospective of Barye's work at the École des beaux-arts, a plaster mould of the monumental bronze Lion au serpent of 1835 was made and exhibited at the Paris Exposition universelle. It was then shown from 15 November 1889 to 15 January 1890 at the American Art Galleries in New York, as part of an exhibition of 453 Barye sculptures from American collections. The intention of the latter was to raise funds for a monument to Barye, subsequently erected on the île Saint-Louis in 1894, and incorporating at its base another full-size bronze cast of Lion au serpent (see page 4 of this catalogue)

Almost certainly using the 1889 plaster mould, the original Tuileries version of Lion au serpent was edited in four sizes by Barbedienne from 1905, using the réduction mécanique system developed by Achille Collas in the 1830s. The present cast is an example of the third réduction, the smallest.