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Philip Melville CourtneyHercules at Rest Large En Grisaille Oil Painting by Philip Melville Courtney2025
2025
$16,500
£12,530.34
€14,395
CA$23,261.11
A$24,731.37
CHF 13,373.98
MX$294,187.14
NOK 167,528.06
SEK 153,002.96
DKK 107,535.62
About the Item
Hercules at Rest — En Grisaille Oil on Canvas
By American artist Philip Melville Courtney
This commanding large-scale en grisaille painting presents a refined academic study of Hercules at Rest, after the celebrated marble sculpture known as the Farnese Hercules. Courtney’s work channels the rigor and restraint of 18th-century academic practice while asserting a distinctly contemporary authority through scale, surface, and compositional clarity.
The subject derives from the Roman marble copy of a Greek original attributed to Glykon of Athens, dating to the early third century AD and discovered in the Baths of Caracalla in Rome in 1546. Hercules is shown in a moment of profound repose—his colossal strength momentarily stilled—leaning upon his club, draped with the skin of the Nemean lion, following the completion of his labors. It is not triumph that dominates the image, but gravity, reflection, and earned exhaustion.
Rendered entirely in a restrained tonal palette, Courtney’s en grisaille technique heightens the sculptural illusion. Subtle modulations of greige, warm stone, and silvery shadow create exquisite modeling across the muscular back, shoulders, and legs, allowing light to articulate form with remarkable precision. The anatomy is powerful yet controlled, masculine yet noble—imbued with a regal stillness that recalls the finest academic studies of antiquity. The composition invites quiet contemplation, capturing Hercules not as an instrument of force, but as a thinking, burdened hero.
Courtney’s approach evokes the tradition of grand academic studies made by artists such as François-Guillaume Ménageot, whose late-18th-century interpretations of classical sculpture sought to merge archaeological fidelity with emotional intelligence. Here, that lineage is honored and extended: the painting bridges classical refinement and modern sensibility, transforming a canonical sculpture into a timeless, painterly meditation on strength and introspection.
Ideal as a focal point in a minimalist, modern, or classically informed interior, this work offers collectors a rare synthesis of intellectual depth, technical mastery, and enduring beauty. Monumental in presence and quietly authoritative, Hercules at Rest stands as a powerful testament to Philip Melville Courtney’s command of the human figure and his ability to reanimate the ancient world for contemporary collectors and designers.
Large en grisaille oil on canvas. Museum-quality workmanship. Ready to place.
Philip Melville Courtney
Philip Melville Courtney — New Works in Collaboration with Maison Palm Beach / Mark Lukas Fine Art Maison Palm Beach / Mark Lukas Fine Art is pleased to announce a new collaboration with acclaimed American artist Philip Melville Courtney, presenting five new works that highlight his remarkable technical mastery. In this collection, Courtney returns to the classical foundations of figure drawing, rendering the human form in oil with exceptional precision, restraint, and depth.
Introducing an exciting direction in his practice, Courtney also unveils a series of antique sculptures, reliefs and gesture sketches —modern reinterpretations of antique, Renaissance, and nineteenth-century motifs. These works merge painting with sculptural illusion, offering collectors a fresh and sophisticated way to experience art historical tradition through a contemporary lens.
A graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Courtney spent more than twenty-five years as a billboard artist in Philadelphia before dedicating himself fully to fine art. His work has been featured in respected galleries and juried exhibitions, including selections by the John Peto Museum International Art Exhibition, Fine Art Connoisseur, and the Philadelphia Watercolor Society’s International Exhibition of Works on Paper. In 2025, his portrait Face to Faceearned a Certificate of Excellence in the 27th Annual International Portrait Competition, chosen from more than 3,000 submissions worldwide.
Fluent in both oil and watercolor, Courtney is recognized for his disciplined draftsmanship, refined surfaces, and the quiet emotional resonance of his subjects.
This new body of work marks a significant evolution—uniting classical rigor with contemporary innovation. It presents an exciting opportunity for collectors seeking work of enduring beauty, impeccable craftsmanship, and intellectual sophistication.
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