Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra

CC0 Public Domain Designation

1875–76

Gustave Moreau (French, 1826-1898)

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, ready to sever the Hydra’s seventh, “immortal” head, which he will later bury.

Despite the violent subject, the painting seems eerily still, almost frozen. Reinforcing this mysterious quality is Moreau’s ability to combine suggestive, painterly passages with obsessive detail. His precise draftsmanship and otherworldly palette are the result of his painstaking methods; he executed numerous preliminary studies for every detail in the composition, even sketching live snakes at the Paris zoo.

Moreau might have intended this mythological painting to express contemporary political concerns: he was profoundly aff ected by France’s military defeat at the hands of Prussia in 1870–71. Hercules might literally personify France; the Hydra could represent Prussia. Whether or not this was the artist’s intention, this monumental work portrays a moral battle between the forces of good and evil with intensity and power, combining history, myth, mysticism, and a fascination with the bizarre.

Status: On View, Gallery 223
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Gustave Moreau
Title: Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1875–1876
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Inscribed lower left: Gustave Moreau
Dimensions: 179.3 × 154 cm (70 9/16 × 60 5/8 in.); Framed: 226.7 × 201.9 cm (89 1/4 × 79 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Eugene A. Davidson
Reference Number: 1964.231
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/20579/manifest.json

Albert Merat, Le Petit Salon (Paris, 1876), p. 18
Victor de Swarte, Lettres sur le Salon de 1876 (Paris, 1876), p. 79.
Georges Dufour, Le Grand Art et le Petit Art au Salon de 1876 (Amiens, 1876), p. 24.
Mario Proth, Voyage au Pays des peintres-Salon 1876 (1876), p. 123.
Emile Bergérat, Les Chefs d’Oeuvre d’art á l’exposition universelle de 1878, pp. 156-157.
Charles L. Duval, Les Beaux Arts á l’exposition universelle de 1878 (Paris, 1878), p. 127.
Dubosc de Pesquidoux, L’Art dans les deux mondes, exposition universelle (Paris, 1881), p. 82.
Paul Mantz, L’Art moderne á l’exposition universelle de 1878 (Paris, 1879), p. 31.
Mario Proth, Les Artistes francais á l’ exposition universelle de 1878, p. 56.
Ary Renan, Gustave Moreau (Paris, 1900), p. 88ff, 89 (ill.).
Gustave Larroument, Notice historique sur Gustave Moreau (Paris, 1901), pp. 15, 59.
G. Desvallieres, introduction, L’Oeuvre de Gustave Moreau, Musée National Gustave Moreau (Paris, 1906), no. 12 (ill.).
Leon Deshairs, Gustave Moreau (Paris, 1913), pp. 67-68, pl. 24.
Musée Gustave Moreau, Catalgoue Sommaire des Peintures, Dessins, Cartons et Aquarelles Exposés Dans Les Galeries du Musée Gustave Moreau (Paris, 1926), p. 8.
Jacques Lethève, Daily Life of French Artists in teh Nineteenth Century, trans. by Hilary E. Paddon (Washington, 1968), p. 88.
Richard Brettell, French Salon Artists, 1800-1900 (Chicago, 1987), pp. 102 (det. ill.), 103, 104 (ill.), 119.
Christie’s, London, 19th Century Continental Pictures, Watercolors and Drawings, June 16, 1995, under lot 131.
Suzanne Folds McCullagh, “ ‘A Lasting Monument’: The Regenstein Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 26, 1 (2000), p. 13.
Jay A. Clarke, “Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra, c. 1876,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 26, 1 (2000), pp. 76-77, cat. 33, fig. 26.
James Rondeau, ed., Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago: Highlights of the collection (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2025), 69 (ill.).

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 1-September, 1969, cat. 62.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gustave Moreau, July 23-September 1, 1974, cat. 50 (ill.), traveled to San Francisco, Palace of the Legion of Honor, September 14-November 11, 1974.
Kunsthaus Zürich, Gustave Moreau Symboliste, March 14-May 25, 1986, cat. 45 (ill.).
Florence, Palzzo Vecchio, Gustave Moreau, 1826-1898, 1989, cat. 22 (ill.), traveled to Ferrara, Galleria civica d’Arte moderna, Palazzo dei diamanti, 1989.
Heerlen, Stadsfalerij, Gustave Moreau, 1991, no cat. no.
Mexico City, Centro Cultural/Arte Contemporáneo, Gustave Moreau sur legado, 1994-95, no cat. no.
Tokyo, National Museum of Western Art, Gustave Moreau, March 21-May 14, 1995, cat. 23 (ill.), traveled to Kyoto, National Museum of Modern Art, May 23-July 9.
Rome, Accademia di Francia a Roma, Villa Medici, Gustave Moreau e l’Italia, 1996, no cat. no.
Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Gustave Moreau, 1998-1999, cat. 58 (ill.), traveled to The Art Institute of Chicago, October-April 1999 and New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, June 1999-September 1999.

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.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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