Running Elk c. 1831

Editor: Here we have Antoine Louis Barye’s “Running Elk.” Carved in what appears to be bronze, it depicts an elk bounding through a forest. The scene feels quite dramatic. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I see a romanticized projection of nature, divorced from the realities of 19th-century industrialization and colonialism. Barye presents the elk as wild and free, but how does this romantic vision serve to mask the exploitation of natural resources and Indigenous lands during this period? Editor: So, it's less about the animal itself and more about what it represents in that specific historical context? Curator: Precisely. The elk becomes a symbol, perhaps unintentionally, of a disappearing wilderness ideal, even as that ideal was being actively destroyed. What does that juxtaposition tell us about the values of the time? Editor: That’s a perspective I hadn’t considered. It certainly gives me a lot to think about regarding art and its relationship to social issues. Curator: Indeed.