The Lament for Icarus

The tragedy here is written in the body of a young man. Icarus has fallen from the sky, and now he lies limp against the rocks while three sea nymphs gather around him. According to Greek myth, Icarus and his father Daedalus escaped imprisonment using wings made of feathers and wax. Warned not to fly too close to the sun, Icarus grew reckless, soared too high, and watched the wax melt away. Herbert James Draper chose the moment after the fall, when the daring is over and only grief remains. One curious thing about the painting is that the wings look surprisingly intact. If Icarus really flew close enough to the sun to melt his wings, you would expect a ruined, half-bare frame, but Draper kept them full and magnificent, more interested in beauty than in strict accuracy to the story.

Draper was a British painter working at the tail end of the Victorian era, and this canvas shows off the polished, dramatic style that made classical myths so popular with audiences of his time. The wings dominate the picture, spreading across nearly the whole scene in warm browns and golds, catching the last light of the setting sun behind the cliffs. One detail worth catching is how Icarus still looks almost peaceful, his face turned away, while the nymphs mourn him with real tenderness. The painting won Draper a medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1900, and it remains his best known work.