Hercules the Archer – second version known as the Large Study with bas-reliefs (Héraklès - grand, première grande étude)

At the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1910, Hercules the Archer made a triumphant entry into the history of modern sculpture. The masterly combination of this expressive structure, between tension and distribution, embodied the propensity for geometric forms and monumentality that was to assert itself in future compositions. When he was nearly 50 years old, Bourdelle received the recognition he had been waiting for. To give substance to the mythological hero’s prowess, the sculptor asked  a soldier he had met at “Rodin's Saturdays”, Major Doyen-Parigot, to pose for him in the studio, with his athletic build and muscles on show. A series of eight small studies modelled between 1906 and 1908 shows the progression, from working with a live model to the definitive structure. In 1909, Hercules was enlarged and then cast in bronze by Rudier at the request of Gabriel Thomas, Bourdelle's patron. This monumental version was intended to be a unique piece. In response to its popularity, Gabriel Thomas gave the sculptor back his publishing rights and returned his copy. Bourdelle sold it to Prince Eugen of Sweden and Norway, who placed it in his garden at Waldemarsudde, where it still stands today.  After 1920, Bourdelle produced two variations of this original version. The first, entitled Large Study, is embellished with two small bas-reliefs on the rock representing Hercules and Pholus the Centaur and Hercules Tying his Sandal. In the second version, the bas-reliefs were replaced by the Hydra of Lerna and the Nemean Lion. Copies are now held in the Musée d'Orsay, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the National Gallery in Prague.

Jérôme Godeau