Portrait of Barye with a Wax Model of "Seated Lion"

Léon Bonnat's Portrait of Barye with a Wax Model of 'Seated Lion' (1885) documents the great French animal sculptor Antoine-Louis Barye, who had died in 1875, through the posthumous device of depicting him with one of his own works. Bonnat was among the leading portrait painters of the French Third Republic, known for his powerful characterizations of cultural and political figures. The Walters Art Museum's collection includes important works by both Bonnat and Barye, making the double subject particularly resonant in that institutional context — the portrait's sitter one of the collection's heroes.

Bonnat's approach to portraiture is direct and physically imposing — faces modeled with a Spanish-influenced tonal strength derived from his Velázquez studies, with strong contrasts of light and shadow building volume. The Barye wax model is rendered with careful attention to its sculptural qualities, creating a dialogue between painted and three-dimensional representation.