The French sculptor Becquerel was 'sculptor animalier': specialized in animal figures. He preferred felines such as panthers and jaguars, and birds of prey. Between 1914 and 1922 he exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français, of which he was also a member. Becquerel was a student of Prosper Lecoutier, also an animal sculptor, and Hector Joseph Lemair, who made statues with historical, allegorical and genre-like subjects, who recommended that he devote himself to animal sculptures.