François Perrier

M. Rappe, Paris, by 1854;
Anonymous sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 9 December 1994, lot 33 (as Circle of Michel Dorigny);
With Galerie Didier Aaron, Paris;
Purchased from the above by the present owner in 2001.

Harvard, Fogg Art Museum, on loan 2002-2007.

Gillet de Saint-Goerges, "Vie et Oeuvre de François Perrier", published by A. de Montaiglon, in Extraits des mémoires inédits sur la vie et les ouvrages des membres de l'Académie de peinture et de sculpture, Paris 1854: 'Monsieur Perrier en fit un autre représentant Hercule qui, transporté d'amour pour Imphale, reine de Lydie, lui marque son aveugle complaisance en prenant une quenouille et filant devant elle, Le tableau est dans la rue de la Harpe, chez M. Rappe, officier de chancellerie';
D. Brême, "François Perrier le plus romain des peintres classiques", in L'Estampille l'objet d'art, February 1997, p. 36, reproduced;
A.L. Clarke, François Perrier, Reflections on the Earlier Works from Lanfranco to Vouet, Paris 2001, pp. 43 and 66, under footnote 173, reproduced fig. 76 and in colour plate XII.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has a fairly old lining and stretcher with a recent restoration. There is a narrow band of retouching along the top edge and down the right side, with various small retouchings along the base edge. There is a quite short old scrape in the drapery by the elbow of the standing woman behind Omphale, and a small knock in Omphale’s chest with various other slight abrasions retouched in her stomach. In general the modelling in the flesh painting is finely preserved, especially in the heads. However as well as the patchy wear in the central chest and stomach of Omphale there are a few other patches of strengthening retouching in the lighter flesh areas: on the two cupids, on Omphale’s thigh, in the neck of the girl playing the lyre, and on the arm, thigh and ankle of the dancer. The upper sky also has scattered strengthening retouchings. Elsewhere throughout the paint is luxuriantly preserved with the full depth of colour in the glazing of the drapery and detail in the modelling. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Perrier's life was itinerant and his rich style highlights his peripatetic artistic development. He was born in Burgundy but trained in Lyon, and by the age of thirty was working with Lanfranco in Rome. There he was influenced both by the antique and by the currents that we now consider to be the start of the Roman Baroque.  By 1630 he was back in Paris as the chief assistant to Vouet before returning to Italy between 1635 and 1645. It is during this second stay in Italy that he came into contact with the works of Poussin and Pietro da Cortona, both of whose influence can be felt in the statuesque figures of the present Hercules and Omphale. The design of the work recalls the antique relief which Perrier so admired, as testified by his two albums of prints after Roman antiques.

His return to Paris in 1645 saw him win several important commissions, including the decoration of the Cabinet de l'Amour at the Hôtel Lambert. The classicizing Roman Baroque which he brought back with him was much in demand and it was shortly after, in 1646, that he painted this Hercules and Omphale, just before he founded the Académie Royale with Charles Le Brun. 

The story of Hercules and Omphale is told by both Apollodorus and Ovid. After murdering his friend Iphitus in fit of madness, Hercules was sold as a slave to Omphale, queen of Lydia who took him as her lover, as suggested by the presence of Cupid in the painting. Hercules grew effeminate while in the queen's service and began to wear women's clothing, as well as spinning yarn. The story is marked by the exchange of attributes: whilst Hercules provides entertainment with a tambourine, Omphale can be seen with his traditional features, the lion's skin and the club, possibly pointing to woman's power over man.