Fine Canvas Art Blog

Lament for Icarus by Herbert Draper

Draper / Paintings (Reproductions) - 2 years ago - troycapc

Herbert James Draper: An Underappreciated Genius

Herbert James Draper was thirty-five when he painted this masterpiece in 1898. Two years later he won the gold medal for it at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900. This remains the most famous of all his paintings.

Draper studied at the Royal Academy in London and had extended his studies to Paris and Rome where he worked under Boulanger and Lefèbvre.  He was awarded a Gold Medal and traveling scholarship by the Royal Academy in 1889 which enabled him to continue his studies in Europe before completing his education in Rome. He was a famous painter through his life, but his fame faded after his death in 1920.

A Mythic Subject

This a very dramatic treatment of the mythological tale of Daedelos and Icaros. The enormous wings of the fallen Icarus are arresting and have traditionally drawn much attention to the work.  Their significance has been debated by many.  Draper also departs from the norm by painting the wings brown which differentiates them from the typical white wings of angels. Winged beings of human form were not the inventions of the Christians or even the Jews, predating both cultures in representations by the Egyptians and Greeks.

Draper is following in the footsteps of Leighton’s Icarus of 1869 . But whereas Leighton depicted the preparations for the flight of Icarus, Draper shows the tragic tragedy that is the end of the flight. He utilizes liquidity in light effects but does not abandon form. The perfection of
Icarus’ body in a lanquid drape is bemoaned by the three sea-nymphs. At the same time Draper emphasizes the transience of time with the rays of the setting sun on distant cliffs.

Emotional Undercurrents

The painting was produced in reaction either to the death of Leighton in 1896 or the artist’s father in 1898. The use of the male body as a vehicle for the projection of subjective emotion is a characteristic of late-Victorian painting and sculpture, and here the rippling wings and drapery gently caress the surface of a body that appears to melt within the arms of the nymph, accentuating the theme of human mutability.

A Spiritual Lesson

There are two lessons in the story of Icarus. One is about the desperate lengths to which a captive will go in order to achieve freedom. The wings of Icarus were fashioned by his father Daedalus so that they both might reach home in Athens from their prison on Crete. Daedalus had been lured to Crete my King Minor to devise a method for controlling the minotaur.

The moral of the story is also about obedience for Icarus disobeyed his father. Daedalus warned Icarus not to fly too close to the sun. The wings were secured by wax and when Icarus flew too close, the wax melted and the feathers came loose. He fell to his death into the sea known as the Icarian, near Icaria, an island southwest of Samos in the east central Aegean.

We are proud to present high quality reproductions of this masterpiece, particularly a large framed canvas print.