Salvador Dali, Eusthenes from Les Songes Drôlatiques de Pantagruel, Original Large Lithograph, 1973

Salvador Dali
Eusthenes, ou Hercule d'Est - Eusthenes, or Hercules of the East)
from "Les Songes Drôlatiques de Pantagruel" (The Drolatic Dreams of Pantagruel)
from the rarest edition of 50 only

Original Lithograph on Japan paper
year: 1973
76 x 56 cm ca
Hand-signed
Hand-numbered 8/50

Catalogue Raisonné:
R.Michler and L. W. Löpsinger
"Salvador Dali, Catalogue Raisonné of Prints II - Lithographs and Wood Engravings 1956-1980" pages 155 - ref. 1405

with Certificate

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HISTORY of This Artwork

Sometime in the 1960s, Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali, already considered one of the leading artists worldwide, discovered a special book published in Paris in 1565 by Richard Breton, as the 'last work' of the writer François Rabelais, and named it after his bestseller about the Giant Pantagruel. This book, "Les Songes Drôlatiques de Pantagruel", i.e. The Drolatic Dreams of Pantagruel (where 'Drolatic' means funny and amusing), consists of 120 woodcuts, each page showing a completely different figure: strange, hybrid creatures, combinations of man and animal, insect, plant and object, pot-bellied or hunchbacked, with special noses, snouts, trunks or beaks; each having a title in the end of the book.
Enraptured and inspired by the new discovery, he chose 25 images and devised variations on these then four-century-old prints. These images have been printed as original lithographs at Atelier Grapholith in Paris, and published by Carpentier in Geneve in 1973.

This very artwork is one meant to represent Eusthenes, the Hercules of the East.

Here the original text in French (an English translation follows):

Ce guerrier à long nez en trompe d'éléphant, tenant de la main gauche une hallebarde, posant la main droite sur un bouclier, et dont le monstrueux priape fait relever la casaque bordée d'hermine, avec ciseaux à la ceinture, emblème ordinaire de lubricité, est ce gros paillard Eusthenes, fort comme quatre bœufs, du livre II, chap. xxix, et cet Esthenes est Hercule d'Est, second du nom, qui a été général en chef des troupes françoises sous Henri II, et a remporté plusieurs victoires, figurées par les palmes qui ornent son bonnet pyramidal; Rabelais en parle ainsi, livre II, chapitre XXIV: « Je, dist Eusthenes, leur rumpray bras et jambes (aux ennemis), car je suys de la lignee «d'Hercule... » Hercule étoit en effet son prénom.

This warrior with a long nose like an elephant's trunk, holding a halberd in his left hand, resting his right hand on a shield, and whose monstrous priapus raises the ermine-trimmed cassock, with scissors at the belt, the usual emblem of lechery, is this big lecher Eusthenes, as strong as four oxen, from Book II, Chapter 29, and this Esthenes is Hercules d'Est, second of the name, who was general-in-chief of the French troops under Henry II, and won several victories, represented by the palms which adorn his pyramidal cap; Rabelais speaks of him thus, Book II, Chapter XXIV: "I," said Eusthenes, "will break their arms and legs (to the enemies), for I am of the lineage of Hercules..." Hercules was indeed his first name.
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Sold with certificate of authenticity, copy of the catalogue raisonné, and copy of the original woodcut and which inspired Dali (we have it in our collection)