which reveal him as inspired by a spirit of true romance and a feeling for the beauty of the antique, as in his Theseus and the Minotaur (1843), Roger and Angelica on the Hippogriff (1846)), Lapitha and Centaur (1848), Jaguar Devouring a Hare (1850), and numerous minor works now very highly valued. The latter two works were exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1850, causing Théophile Gautier to observe:"The mere reproduction of nature does not constitute art; Barye aggrandizes his animal subjects, simplifying them, idealizing and stylizing them in a manner that is bold, energetic, and rugged, that makes him the Michelangelo of the menagerie." Examples of his larger work include the Lion of the Column of July, of which the plaster model was cast in 1839, various lions and tigers in the gardens of the Tuileries, and the four groups War, Peace, Strength, and Order (1854). While Barye excelled at sculpture, he often faced financial burdens due to his lack of business knowledge. In 1848 he was forced to declare bankruptcy, and all of his work and molds were sold to a foundry. The foundry began making inferior work from 1848 to 1857, and his reputation suffered during this time. In 1876 what remained of Barye's inventory, 125 models, were sold to the Ferdinand Barbedienne foundry. The 1877 Barbedienne catalogue offered all of the models in bronze in variable sizes, and the Barbedienne castings were of superb quality. Fame did not come until later in life. In 1854 he was made Professor of Drawings at the Museum of Natural History, and was elected to the Académie des beaux-arts in 1868. He produced no new works after 1869. The mass of admirable work left by Barye entitles him to be regarded as one of the great animal life artists of the French animalier school, and the refiner of a class of art which has attracted such men as Emmanuel Frémiet, Paul-Édouard Delabrièrre, Auguste Cain, and Georges Gardet. There is a public square on the eastern tip of Île Saint-Louis in Paris dedicated to him. Family Barye had a son, Alfred Barye, who studied under him and also became an animalier sculptor. Alfred, although very competent in his own right as a sculptor, would struggle to gain notoriety working in the shadow of his more famous father. Antoine-Louis was not pleased when his son began signing work as "A. Barye" because