Chat assis (Seated cat)

During his final years, Barye kept an Algerian greyhound and a cat in his studio as company. Chat assis is a study of the latter, modelled in or around 1870. Its relaxed pose and serene expression distance this, Barye's only model of a domestic feline, from his significant body of work concentrating on the wilder instincts of the cat family's numerous members. The model appeared in Barye's two final catalogues and, after his death, was edited by Brame, often with the addition of a rectangular base.

Another cast of this model, formerly in the collection of Eduardo Guinle (d. 1941), was sold in these rooms, 25 April 2003, lot 156 ($5,975).