Mercy H9-3

Mercy is the third work in The Virtues, and the one Hirst has rendered in the softest terms. Nitobe defined mercy as the most tender of the Samurai virtues, and the composition follows suit: pale pink blossoms drifting against a clear, almost weightless blue. It's a gentler register than the denser pieces in the series, which HENI developed as an eight-print portfolio distilling Hirst's Cherry Blossoms paintings, first shown to major acclaim at Fondation Cartier, into a defined, collectible format.

Production-wise, it follows the same exacting standard as the rest of the series: a laminated Giclée print flush-mounted directly onto a rigid aluminium composite panel, with no frame or glass to interrupt the surface. The effect is that the paint's texture, thick, layered, almost sculptural in places, reads cleanly from across a room, without glare washing it out.

Mercy's edition of 817 places it in the middle of the range for Virtues pieces available here. The work is in pristine condition, hand-signed and numbered on the reverse, and arrives ready to hang.