HeraclesStymphalianBirds1.0006

Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929), "Héraklès archer" ("Hercules the Archer") 1906-1909, bronze, in many versions; Paris, Musée Bourdelle, MB br.1245; on semi-permanent display at Paris-Charles De Gaulle International Airport, Bourdelle Museum in Terminal 2E-M — also seen at Rome, Galerie Nazionali della Arte Moderna, and at Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Most of Heracles' labors require direct, hand-to-hand contact with his quarry. In the pursuit of the Stymphalian Birds, his use of the bow therefore stands out among the other labors. Bourdelle saw in Heracles' labors the "acceptable face of blind violence" and captured in this sculpture the hero's essential "life force". (See Bourdelle.paris.fr, linked in tab above-left.)

Modelled after persistent field observation of a single soldier’s athletic deployment, Bourdelle achieved wide-spread notoriety for this piece. Though he had contracted with his patron to cast only one bronze of the original, the fame prompted both along arrangements that led to the casting of a second version that after 1920 was acquired eventually by the Musée d’Orsay, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art the National Gallery in New York City, Syracuse University, the Crow Collection in Dallas, The New Orleans Museum of Art, as well as the Czech National Gallery in Prague, and collections in Belgium, Japan, and Argentina.