Antoine Etex (1808-1888) Hercules smothering Antaeus Bronze with red run patina Signed "ETEX" on the front H. 45cm Related literature: Stanislas Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'école française au dix-neuvième siècle, Paris, 1914-1921, II, p. 300. At the Salon of 1848, Etex presented a bronze group entitled Hercule étouffant Antée. Théophile Gautier praised it in the April 22, 1848 issue of La Presse: "If our language, so poorly suited to rendering plastic expression, had sufficiently varied words, we would speak in greater detail of several works that certainly deserved it ... the small bronze group of Hercules smothering Antaeus, by Etex, an energetic study".