The Infant Hercules

Reynolds's small Infant Hercules study from around 1787 at Princeton represents a preparatory or related work to the larger Infant Hercules Strangling Serpents that he painted for the Empress Catherine of Russia as an allegory of Russian national power. The full-scale painting (now in the Hermitage) depicted the infant hero — representing Russia — overcoming the serpents of England and Sweden; Reynolds's relationship with this prestigious commission reflects his extraordinary international reputation by the late 1780s. The Princeton study, considerably smaller than the Hermitage work, may be an oil sketch or a closely related but independent variation on the theme. Reynolds's engagement with mythological subjects derived from his sustained argument that British painting should aspire to history painting — the genre considered highest by Continental academic tradition — and the Hercules subject gave him the opportunity to demonstrate that aspiration in the most prestigious possible context. The Princeton Art Museum's classical subject collection provides a fitting institutional home for this engagement with ancient mythology.

The dynamic composition captures the infant's heroic action. Reynolds's handling creates a scene that elevates childhood observation into classical drama.