6187 - Tuaillon, Louis

Tuaillon, Louis Hercules Subdues the Erymanthean Boar. Bronze, with a dark and light brown patina. Height 49 cm. On the back of the plinth is the artist’s signature “L. Tuaillon” and the foundry mark “M P u [ligature]” from Martin & Piltzing, Berlin. (Designed in 1899/1900, early casting circa 1901). This sculpture of Hercules is one of the most significant works by Louis Tuaillon, a Berlin-based student of Begas. It marks his departure from the calm, austere formal language of Adolf von Hildebrand’s school in favor of painterly tendencies and a more fluid modeling style inspired by Rodin. The design was created in 1899/1900 in Rome and was the winning entry in a competition for a life-size bronze sculpture in the entrance hall of the Berlin National Gallery; however, it was not cast until after Tuaillon’s death at the instigation of his descendants and was erected on Lützowplatz in Berlin in 1967. Tuaillon produced the first bronze cast based on the competition model in 1901 while still in Rome (on loan to the Kunsthalle Bremen); other early casts are located, among other places, in the National Gallery in Berlin and the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne. Tuaillon first exhibited the work in 1902 at the Berlin Secession under the title “Hercules with the Boar.” Lit.: Gert-Dieter Ulferts: Louis Tuaillon (1862–1919). Berlin Sculpture between Tradition and Modernity, also a dissertation, Göttingen 1987, Berlin 1993, WVZ No. 21. - We ask that you request condition reports for the lots, as the condition is only indicated in the catalog in exceptional cases. - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog.