Ercole saettante

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Ercole saettante (Héraklès archer) by Antoine Bourdelle, 1909
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea
(National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art)
Viale delle Belle Arti
Rome, May 2019

“In 1914, Antoine Bourdelle became aware of the injury suffered because of the exclusivity granted to Gabriel Thomas. Indeed, after the Venice Biennale where Bourdelle had presented a cast of Hercules the Archer, he was forced to refuse to sell a bronze statue. Seeing Bourdelle's disappointment, Thomas agreed to end his exclusivity and allow Bourdelle to make further copies. The first new sculpture went to Sweden in 1920. Thereafter, Thomas made a new bronze which remained in his family until it was sold in 1991 to Drouot-Montaigne, this work is now in Tokyo. After Thomas' agreement to concede his rights, a copy was given in 1916 to the Gallery of Modern Art in Rome. In 1920, the museum Waldemarsudde of Stockholm bought the first copy of Thomas. In 1923, copies were sold to museums in Brussels, Prague and New York. In 1925, the city of Toulouse provided a Hercules statue for its sports museum. In 1926, the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris bought a Hercules (it is now at the Musée d'Orsay). In 1927, the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon had a copy in turn. There are now a number of further versions in museums and cities.” (Hercules the Archer, Wikipedia)