BARYE, Alfred

French sculptor, the son of Antoine-Louis Barye. He was an accomplished artist and sculptor in his own right but for his entire career he worked in the shadow of his much better known and more famous father. Alfred apprenticed under the tutelage of his father and expertly learned the art of bronze sand casting at a very young age while working along side his brothers in his father’s studio and foundry. Many of his earliest works, done as a young man, are small casts of wild animals which show the strong influence and teachings of his father. His most successful and numerous subjects were the racehorses of the day but he is known to have modeled many works in the style of his father as well as in a style that is typically his own.

He signed many of his sculptural works Barye or A. Barye, the same signature that was used by his father. This causes as much confusion today as it did during his lifetime and many of Alfred’s models are mistakenly attributed to and sold as his father’s works. At the insistence of his father he began signing his work Alf. Barye, and later A. Barye Fils. It is a documented fact that Alfred Barye continued casting his father’s models after his father’s death.

Through most of his life Alfred was in constant conflict with his father. At times he worked in his father’s studio and the two artists set aside their difficulties but there were also times where neither man spoke to each other, sometimes for years.

Alfred Barye exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1864, 1865, 1866 and 1882.