Paul Edme Le
Rat (aka Paul
Edmunde Le Rat; Paul Edme Lerat) (1842/49–1892)
“L'Argiphonte” (aka “The Slayer of Argus”), 1881, after
Gustave Léon Antoine Marie Popelin’s (1859–1936) painting exhibited
in the Salon of 1881. The etching was initially published in 1881 in “L'Art” (volume
XXVII, page 95) and printed by Alfred Salmon (fl.1863-1894).
This impression (before colouring) was published in 1888 by George Barrie
in Philadelphia as plate 45 (XLV) to M K Halévy’s “L’Eau-Forte”, page 71.
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The portrayed
scene shows the mythological god Hermes (aka Mercury; Argeiphontes; L'Argiphonte) holding aloft the head of Argus who he has
just beheaded with a sickle. For those who may be wondering about the story
leading up to this rather dreadful scene, the sequence of events is as
complicated as it is fascinating. Let me try to explain …
Hermes was sent
by the Zeus—the king of the gods—to slay Argus—a herdsman nicknamed, Argus
Panoptes (transl. “all seeing”), because he was literally covered with eyes.
The reason for this murder assignment was because Zeus’ wife, Hera, had given
Argus the responsibility of guarding a very beautiful black and white heifer
named “Lo.”
This is where
the story has an incredibly interesting twist.
Lo was not just
any cow, she was actually Zeus’ true love cleverly disguised by Zeus as a
heifer so that Hera wouldn’t find out about his sexual proclivity for doe-eyed
lovelies. Of course, Hera knew about Zeus’ strong desire for this particular
heifer and this is why she gave Argus, the many-eyed herdsman, the job of
preventing Zeus from expressing his deep admiration for Lo.
The way that
Hermes kills Argus is devilishly simple: Hermes pretends that he too is a
herdsman like Argus—hence his lightweight skimpy outfit—and bores lonely Argus
with so many tiring stories that all of Argus’ eyes went to sleep. At that moment
Hermes lopped off Argus’ head with his handy sickle. Needless to say Hera was
not impressed and extracts all of Argus’ eyes and places them in a passing
peacock’s tail.
__________
Etching on
cream wove paper, hand-coloured in watercolour and backed with a support sheet.
Size: (sheet) 37.2
x 23.3 cm; (image borderline) 26.4 x 15.3 cm.
Lettered in
plate above the image borderline: (centre) “Planche XLV.”
Beraldi 1; IFF
64
Condition: a
strong and well-printed impression with wide margins laid onto a sheet of
archival (millennium quality) washi paper. Note that he platemark is only
faintly visible and has been thoroughly flattened in the backing process. The
image has been coloured with artists-quality watercolour in 2022.
I am selling
this graphically strong, hand-coloured, etching showing the mythological god
Hermes holding in triumph the severed head of Argus, for AU$600 in total
(currently US$428.27/EUR379.67/GBP316.61 at the time of posting this listing) including
postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import
duties/taxes imposed by some countries.
If you are
interested in purchasing this eye-catching amalgam of etching and watercolour, please contact me
(oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make
the payment easy.
This print has been sold
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