Jaguar Devouring a Crocodile

Antoine-Louis Barye, French, born Paris, France 1796-died Paris, France 1875 · ca. 1830s

Antoine-Louis Barye created more than fifty sculptures of cats. He chiseled the surface and applied patinas to show the patterns and textures of each animal’s fur. His work captures the force and brutality of great wild cats attacking their prey, and one critic described it as a “fierce, gluttonous, voluptuous enjoyment of the feline beast in the taste of blood.”