Automedon with the Horses of Achilles

“Automedon with the Horses of Achilles” is a massive canvas painting by French painter Henri Regnault who later came to be known for his Orientalist work. However, this painting falls under the genre of mythological history painting. To really understand this particular painting, it is important to know the story behind why it was made in the first place. In 1866, Regnault won the Prix de Rome, the highest honor a young French painter could receive at the time. It came with a scholarship to study at the French Academy in Rome, but the prize came with conditions. As part of the prize, he was required to send finished paintings back to the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Paris every year to show they were making progress. This painting was one of those required submissions, sent back in 1868 while Regnault was still living and working in Rome. The painting shows a scene from Homer’s Iliad. It shows Automedon, the charioteer of the fallen hero Achilles, struggling to control two horses that are wild with grief over their master’s death. It was an unusual choice for the first submission, since students were expected to send back a single nude study rather than a large, dramatic narrative scene like this one as their first required submission. As a brilliant mythological painting it stood out for its scale and ambition.