1876
oil
canvas
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra is a 1876 oil by Gustave Moreau, a Impressionism work, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
You see Hercules swinging a sword at a many-headed snake in a dark, swampy mess. The monster’s heads twist like smoke, and the whole scene glows with sickly greens and browns. Moreau loved weird, dreamy stories. Here, he turns a Greek myth into something almost nightmarish—less about heroism, more about the horror of the fight. The paint is thick in places, thin in others, making the swamp look like it’s still moving. If you like this eerie style, look up glazing. Moreau layered thin, transparent paint to make those glowing colors.
In order to atone for killing his family, the mythical ancient Greek hero Hercules was tasked with completing twelve difficult feats. His second task was to slay the Lernaean Hydra, a water monster with multiple serpentine heads. Gustave Moreau depicted their encounter in this work, exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1876, indulging his taste for the ghoulish. Hercules confronts the Hydra in a swampy landscape, rendered as a primordial ooze of brown paint and strewn with the fragmented and decomposing bodies of previous victims. Calm and youthful, Hercules stands amid the carnage, weapon in hand,…
Sold by the artist to Louis Mante (1857-1939), Marseille on July 26, 1887 for 30,000 francs; by descent to his heir, Juliette Mante (died 1956), Marseille, his widow retaining custody; Mante sale, Paris, Galerie Charpentier, November 28, 1956, lot 6 (ill.). Richard L. Feigen, Chicago and New York by 1961 [see New York 1961]. Jacques Seligmann, New York. Mrs. Eugene A. Davidson, Chicago by 1964; given to the Art Institute, 1964.
Paris, Salon, 1876, cat. 1505. Paris, Exposition Universelle Internationale, 1878, Groupe I, Classe I, cat. 656. Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, Gustave Moreau, 1906, cat. 75. Lawrence University of Kansas, Profiles and Perspectives in 19th Century French Art, January 14-February 26, 1958, cat. 18. New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Odilon Redon-Gustave Moreau-Rodolphe Bresdin, December 4, 1961-February 4, 1962, cat. 178 (ill.), traveled to The Art Institute of Chicago, March 2-April 15, 1962. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Past Rediscovered: French 19th Century Painting, July…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Gustave Moreau was a French artist and an important figure in the Symbolist movement.
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