Hercules Raising his Club: Study for “Hercules and Cacus”1717
Hercules swings his club high, his muscular body modelled in black chalk with white highlights on buff paper. More about this work
About this work
Hercules swings his club high, his muscular body modelled in black chalk with white highlights on buff paper. François Le Moyne made this study in 1717 for his painting Hercules and Cacus, in which the hero kills the fire-breathing giant who had stolen his cattle; the finished picture won him admission to the French Royal Academy. Studies like this, drawn from a posed model, let him work out the action before committing it to canvas. Le Moyne went on to paint the ceiling of the Salon d’Hercule at Versailles, and François Boucher was briefly his pupil.
Written by Ochre Editions.
What you’re looking at
A work made of black chalk, with white chalk, on buff laid paper, laid down on laid paper.
Description from the Art Institute of Chicago.
How it was made
- Chalk
- Natural black, red and white chalks. Used together on toned paper they could give the warmth of flesh with very little effort, and they were favourites for studies from life.
- Laid paper
- Handmade on a mould of close-set wires, which leave fine parallel lines you can see when the sheet is held to the light.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Art Institute of Chicago has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 2019.880
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
- Type
- Drawing and Watercolor
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
