Currently not on view
The Infant Hercules,
ca. 1785–89
This is believed to be a preparatory sketch for a history painting commissioned by Catherine the Great, with the subject left to Reynolds’s discretion. He chose a precocious demonstration of the remarkable strength of Hercules: attacked in his crib by snakes sent by his father’s jealous wife, Hera, the son of Alcmene strangled the reptiles. The subject was intended to flatter the ruler of an increasingly powerful Russia. Reynolds displayed the finished multi-figure canvas at the Royal Academy in 1788 before sending it to Russia.
Information
ca. 1785–89
- David Mannings and Martin Postle, Sir Joshua Reynolds: a complete catalogue of his paintings, (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000). , Vol. 1: p. 541, no. 2096; Vol. 2: p. 602, fig. 1647.
- Old master & British drawings: auction in London, 9 July 2014, sale L14040, 10.30 am, (London: Sotheby's, 2014).
- "Acquisitions of the Princeton University Art Museum 2014", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 74 (2015): p. 55-77., p. 66 (color illus.)
Related Objects
Filter by:
San Francisco
,
December 1, 1950
x1980-2380
San Francisco
,
August 26, 1949
x1980-1822
Sarah Pierpont Edwards (wife of Jonathan Edwards)
PP441
Whistle (kasengosengo)
,
before 1924
y1953-173
Portrait
,
1913
2010-102.39 g
Reclining youth at left, injecting left arm of crouching woman at right
,
1980
x1982-2.40
