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François Le Moyne

Hercules Seated, study for Hercules and Omphale

1724
Red, black, and white chalk, with stumping, on light brown laid paper, laid down on cream laid paper
40.2 × 32 cm (15.8 × 12.6 in)

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In the collection of Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago · as of July 2026

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FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

Carefully distributed across a tan sheet of paper, these studies of a male nude for the figure of Hercules were made in preparation for François Lemoyne’s masterpiece, Hercules and Omphale , painted in Rome in 1724. In the myth illustrated by the work, the Classical hero is reluctantly forced by Omphale to submit to spinning wool like a woman. Interweaving the red, black, and white chalks made famous by Antoine Watteau in the prior decade, this drawing heralds the grace and beauty of the French Rococo while reflecting the powerful experience of Michelangelo’s Sistine Ignudi .

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