Although his contemporaries criticized his style and his choice of animal subjects, Barye is today esteemed as the founder of the Parisian animaliers. He worked at a time of widespread public hope that the ruling government could be made liberal and responsive to its citizens. His choice of bronze over marble and his use of animals as symbols for human emotions were both considered radical. The political symbolism of the lion of monarchy crushing the evil serpent was applauded by Louis Philippe, who made Barye a knight of the Legion of Honor in 1833. Later Barye was appointed professor of zoological drawing at the Museum of Natural History, where Auguste Rodin studied with him.

F. Barbedienne, whose foundry cast the Lion, interested Thomas Hockley, chairman of the Fairmount Park Art Association's Committee of Works of Art, in the sculpture. Hockley circulated subscription books in 1885, and six years later payment was made for a cast of the work, which was the first sculpture installed in Rittenhouse Square.

Adapted from Public Art in Philadelphia by Penny Balkin Bach (Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1992).