Le Lion de Nubie et sa proie, Bronze sculpture in Jardin du Luxembourg, France
Le Lion de Nubie et sa proie is a bronze group by Auguste Cain, set in the Luxembourg Gardens in the 6th arrondissement. It shows a Nubian lion standing over a slain bird, its prey pressed beneath the paws. The sculpture was placed in 1874, the year of its inception, and belongs to the garden's series of animal bronzes.
Auguste Cain's bronze was commissioned under Napoleon III and installed in the Luxembourg Gardens in 1874, the date inscribed on the work. It belongs to the Second Empire's programme of animal sculpture for public gardens, and Cain, a pupil of Rude, specialised in hunting and wildlife subjects. The lion is shown with a bird of prey beneath its paw.
The title names a Nubian lion, a subspecies of lion from northeastern Africa, shown with its prey; the bird beneath it is a detail visitors can pick out. The bronze was commissioned for the Luxembourg Gardens under the Third Republic, when animal sculpture by artists such as Auguste Cain filled Parisian public gardens.
The sculpture stands in the southern section of the gardens where paved paths lead directly to it. You can view it comfortably from multiple angles and the surrounding area offers plenty of space to walk around it.
The Nubian lion is not an extinct species: it is a subspecies of lion from Nubia, in present-day Sudan, named by the sculptor Auguste Cain. The bronze was cast by the Fonderie du Val d'Osne and inaugurated in 1874 in the Luxembourg Gardens.
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