Noël COYPEL Paris, 1628 - 1707 The Apotheosis of Hercules Oil on canvas Unframed (Restorations) The Apotheosis of Hercules, oil on canvas, by N. Coypel 98 x 81,50 cm (38,58 x 32,09 in.) Provenance: Anonymous sale; Monaco, Christie's, 19 June 1994, lot 41A ; Anonymous sale; Paris, Sotheby's, 17 June 2015, n° 39 ; Acquired at this sale by the current owner; Private collection, Versailles Bibliography: Dominique Brême, '1704 - Le Salon, les arts et le Roi', cat. exp. Musée de l'Ile-de-France, domaine départemental de Sceaux, 2013, mentioned p. 70-71 Guillaume Kazerouni and Béatrice Sarrazin, 'Noël Coypel (1628-1707). Peintre du roi', exhibition catalogue, Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon and Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes, 2023-2024, mentioned p. 252, fig. 123-1, repr. p. 244 Comment: The marble Trianon, the pleasure residence of Louis XIV, who wished to find peace and quiet there far from the splendours of the court, was built by Jules Hardouin-Mansart in record time in 1687. The king commissioned painters such as François Verdier, Gabriel Blanchard, Charles de La Fosse, Michel Corneille, René Antoine Houasse and Noël Coypel to create the decor for the rooms. The king commissioned two cycles from Coypel, one for the north wing of the Trianon, dedicated to Apollo, and the other for Trianon-sous-bois, dedicated to Hercules. The eight paintings making up the Hercules cycle were commissioned in 1688, but were apparently not completed until many years later1. Noël Copel, who was over sixty at the time, did not focus on the demigod's twelve labours, but rather on his final exploits. The Apotheosis of Hercules, which adorns room 27 of the Marble Trianon, is still in situ, unlike three other works in the series that did not meet the same fate. It is the modello for this triumphal scene that we are presenting here. Our painting, which shows the figures on a smaller scale, giving the effect of standing back from the final composition, already has all the vigour and strength of the work intended for the set. 1 Béatrice Sarrazin indicates that the cycle must have been conceived between 1695 and 1699-1704 (Antoine Copel (1628-1707) peintre du roi, cat. exp. Versailles, Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et du Trianon, Rennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts, 2023-2024, p. 231).