Paris, 1767. Lagrenée stages a silent betrayal. Three figures, a room hung with dark drapery, and a jealousy that will destroy everything.
Beauty before the fall
At the centre, Mercury — recognisable by the silver wings on his helmet — leans toward Herse with restrained ardour. Herse, half-draped, meets his gaze with a soft expression. Now look at the third figure: Aglauros, lurking to the right, one hand raised in a gesture of warning. Her expression is dark, closed off. Lagrenée works with a warm, luminous palette typical of late Rococo. The flesh tones are rendered in the manner of Boucher — pearlescent, almost translucent. The draperies structure the composition throughout.
A jealousy carved in stone
The myth comes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Mercury, enamoured of Herse, has bribed Aglauros to gain access to her sister. But Minerva, angered, sows a consuming jealousy into Aglauros’s heart. She blocks the entrance and refuses him passage. Mercury then turns her to black stone — darkened by envy. Lagrenée paints the precise moment of confrontation, just before the metamorphosis. In 1767, the painting was exhibited at the Paris Salon, before entering the collection of Gustaf Philip Creutz, Swedish ambassador to France, and eventually joining the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.
Lagrenée the Elder
Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée the Elder (1725–1805) trained at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. First Painter to the Tsar in Saint Petersburg, he embodies the transition between Rococo and Neoclassicism. His mastery of mythological subjects made him one of the most celebrated names at the eighteenth-century Parisian Salon.
Think about it
💭 Do you recognise that moment when jealousy takes hold of a face — before a single word has been spoken?
About this work
- Mercury, Herse and Aglauros
- Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée the Elder
- 1767
- Oil on canvas
- 55 × 70 cm
- Nationalmuseum, Stockholm
- https://collection.nationalmuseum.se/en/collection/item/17842/
