Éléphant du Sénégal (Elephant of Senegal)

Conceived as a pendant to his marginally earlier Éléphant du Cochinchine (see previous lot), Éléphant du Sénégal is the last, most dynamic and most popular of Barye's four elephant studies. Cast in very limited numbers prior to the sculptor's death, the model and its reduced version (after 1887, see lot 238) were subsequently edited repeatedly and with great success by Barbedienne.

Another cast of this model, formerly in the collection of Eduardo Guinle (d. 1941), was sold in these rooms, 25 April 2003, lot 6 ($13,145).