Ian Wardropper: Bourdelle looked to Classical Greek art for both the subject and the style of this sculpture. The work shows the mythical hero Herakles shooting the vicious birds that menaced the woods around Lake Stymphalia in Arcadia. Here he kneels and braces his left foot on a tall rock, as he draws the bow taut and takes aim. Bourdelle shows a moment of intense physical stress. Notice how Herakles' brow frowns in concentration and the powerful muscles of his arms and thighs stand out.

Bourdelle worked as an assistant to the master sculptor Rodin—whose large, multi-figure bronze work is nearby. He absorbed Rodin's interest in conveying human emotions in sculpture.

But Bourdelle also looked at medieval sculpture as well as early Greek sculpture for ideas, fascinated with their stylized forms.

Clare Vincent, associate curator in European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, explains how we see this influence in his work.

Clare Vincent: It's very much in the style of archaic Greek sculpture. There are things about it—the structure of the cheeks, the way the eyes are set in the head, even the very, very tight set of the mouth can be found in archaic Greek pieces. It's perhaps, the most successful piece that Bourdelle did. Although he certainly had, after this piece, a number of public monuments in France, and a very good career.