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Lot Essay
Herbert Arnould Olivier was born in Battle, East Sussex, in 1861. An uncle of Sir Laurence Olivier, he trained at the Royal Academy Schools (winning the Creswick Prize in 1881) and exhibited extensively at the Fine Art Society, the Royal Academy, the Paris Salon, the Grafton Galleries, and the British Institution. He was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1887, the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours in 1929 and appointed Official War Artist in 1917.
The present lot depicts Hera, the chief goddess of Olympus, wife of Zeus and protector of women, marriage and childbirth. According to myth, Zeus had an affair with Io, a princess of Argos, and upon realising that Hera had discovered his infidelity, turned her into a heifer as a disguise. Hera, feigning affection for the cow, instructed the all-seeing one hundred-eyed giant Argus to keep watch over her; Mercury was sent to kill the giant, which he successfully did, disguised as a shepherd. In memory of Argus, Hera took his eyes and set them in the tail of her peacock, which then became a sacred symbol of her watchfulness - symbolized by the eyes in it's display feathers.
Surrounded by lilies, Hera sits on a stone ledge with her watchful peacock by her side; beyond, luminous in the distance, stands the Temple of Argos. Trees, dappled by the golden evening light, provide shelter, while a procession of attendants move up the hill towards her, worshipfully holding garlands of wildflowers that they have gathered during the day. The goddess observes them approaching, with a watchful, protective eye. Olivier emotively captures the brief moment when day and night converge, negotiating the handover of the realm from light to darkness; one can almost hear chattering cicadas being replaced by an orchestra of shrill crickets and tree-frogs.
The present lot depicts Hera, the chief goddess of Olympus, wife of Zeus and protector of women, marriage and childbirth. According to myth, Zeus had an affair with Io, a princess of Argos, and upon realising that Hera had discovered his infidelity, turned her into a heifer as a disguise. Hera, feigning affection for the cow, instructed the all-seeing one hundred-eyed giant Argus to keep watch over her; Mercury was sent to kill the giant, which he successfully did, disguised as a shepherd. In memory of Argus, Hera took his eyes and set them in the tail of her peacock, which then became a sacred symbol of her watchfulness - symbolized by the eyes in it's display feathers.
Surrounded by lilies, Hera sits on a stone ledge with her watchful peacock by her side; beyond, luminous in the distance, stands the Temple of Argos. Trees, dappled by the golden evening light, provide shelter, while a procession of attendants move up the hill towards her, worshipfully holding garlands of wildflowers that they have gathered during the day. The goddess observes them approaching, with a watchful, protective eye. Olivier emotively captures the brief moment when day and night converge, negotiating the handover of the realm from light to darkness; one can almost hear chattering cicadas being replaced by an orchestra of shrill crickets and tree-frogs.