Colour Sketch for 'Hercules Wrestling with Death for the Body of Alcestis'

Colour Sketch for 'Hercules Wrestling with Death for the Body of Alcestis', undated and held at Leighton House, is a preparatory work for one of Leighton's major mythological compositions depicting the hero Heracles (Hercules) wresting the dead Alcestis from the grip of Thanatos (Death) to restore her to her husband Admetus. The subject is drawn from Euripides' tragedy Alcestis and offered Leighton an opportunity for a composition combining extreme physical struggle with psychological drama. The wrestling of Hercules with the personified figure of Death was among the most physically demanding subjects in the classical repertoire, requiring the painter to resolve the complex interlocking of two figures in violent conflict. The colour sketch would have worked out the primary compositional challenge before the full-scale canvas.

Compositional sketches for physically complex subjects — two bodies in violent struggle — required Leighton to establish the spatial interlocking of the figures and the dynamic balance of the composition before committing to the finished work. The handling is necessarily exploratory, with rapid decisions about figure placement, the direction of force and countervailing resistance, and the relationship between the three main figures: Heracles, Death, and the limp body of Alcestis.