Barthélemy Prieur (1540-1611), Pacing Bull, c. 1600, Bronze, 13.5cms high, 16cms wide. Tomasso Brothers Fine Art

LONDON - During London Art Week, 3-10 July 2015, the neighbouring Old Master galleries of Rafael Valls and Tomasso Brothers Fine Art, will present a complimentary brace of exhibitions depicting a grand collection of artists’ animals: The Painter’s Menagerie and The Sculptor’s Menagerie respectively.  From an exotic rhinoceros carved in coloured marble to an early study of a mouse by Jan Brueghel the Younger, the featured animals hail from all corners of the globe, and encompass the variety of wild and domestic creatures that have captured the imagination of artists for millennia.  

Works date from classical antiquity to the 19^th century, by European and British Old Master painters and sculptors, the two fields in which these galleries excel.  Both exhibitions are bound to delight the casual observer as well as keen lovers of fauna. 

Works by important French artists will be included in the exhibitions: shown below is this small-scale yet powerful study of a pacing bull by Barthélemy Prieur (1540-1611), sculptor to King Henri IV of France. King Henri IV is known to have taken a liking to Prieur’s smaller bronzes, which is probably why the artist began working for him from 1594 in Paris, where he spent the remainder of his career. It was likely that Prieur had access to the King’s collection of small bronze sculptures by Giambologna whilst he held the position of Royal sculptor and it is Giambologna’s model of a pacing bull that may have provided the prototypical model for this work, an example of which is now in the Museo Nazionalae del Bargello. 

Alonside Prieur’s bull is a substantial painting of two cockerels fighting over a hen, by Jacques Barraband (1768-1809), the noted French botanical and zoological illustrator, best known for his lifelike renderings of tropical birds. His illustration was considered the most accurate of any made during the early 1800s. He produced a series of watercolours of birds and flowers between 1801 and 1804 at the commission of Napoleon, who also hired the artist to decorate the banqueting hall at St. Cloud. 

  Jacques Barraband (Aubusson 1768-1809 Lyon), French School: Two Cocks Fighting over a Hen, Oil on canvas, Signed “Barraband”, 89.5 x 117cms. Rafael Valls Gallery

 Other notable works in the exhibitions include an unusual painting of pumas by the C19th Liverpool (England) artist William Huggins; this intimate work is a departure from his usual depictions of lions but illustrative of his enduring interest in big cats, and an oil on panel Landscape with Studies of Dromedaries and their Keepers by Jan Breughel the Elder (1568-1625) & Studio (at Rafael Valls Gallery); a roaring lion head in bronze, perhaps once a waterspout, from ancient Rome, whose lineage of inspiration harks back to Assyrian lions of the 9th century BC and a masterful carved stone eagle of the C16th Florentine School (at Tomasso Brothers Fine Art).

William Huggins (1820-1884). English School:  Two Pumas in a Landscape, Oil on panel. Signed and Dated: “W. Huggins 1840”, 50.2 x 66cms. Rafael Valls Gallery

Roman, 1st to 2nd century A.D., Lion Mask, Bronze, 35.5cms high, 30.2cms wide. Tomasso Brothers Fine Art

The Painter’s Menagerie: Rafael Valls Gallery, 11 Duke Street, St. James’s - rafaelvalls.co.uk 

The Sculptor’s Menagerie: Tomasso Brothers Fine Art, 12 Duke Street, St. James’s - tomassobrothers.co.uk       

3-10 July 2015  -  for opening times see website www.londonartweek.co.uk