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The Lament for Icarus
Artist	Herbert James Draper
Year	1898
Type	Oil on canvas
Location	Tate Gallery, London

The Lament for Icarus is a painting by Herbert James Draper, showing dead Icarus, surrounded by lamenting nymphs. The wings of Icarus are based on the bird-of-paradise pattern. In 1898 the painting was bought from the Royal Academy exhibition through The Chantrey Bequest, a public fund for purchasing modern art bequeathed by Sir Francis Leggatt Chantry, R.A.. The Lament for Icarus was subsequently awarded the gold medal at the Exposition Universelle of 1900 in Paris.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).

The use of the male body as a vehicle for the projection of subjective emotion, as in The Lament for Icarus, is a feature of late-Victorian painting and sculpture, and in The Lament for Icarus the body appears to melt within the arms of one nymph. Draper applied liquid light effects without abandoning form and used mainly warm colors. The tanned skin of Icarus refers to his close approach to the Sun before falling down. The rays of the setting sun on distant cliffs emphasize the transience of time. Moralizing, sentimental and sensual, The Lament for Icarus ultimately became a well-composed image of epic failure.

Notes

1. Jacob E. Nyenhuis. Myth and the creative process: Michael Ayrton and the myth of Daedalus, the maze maker, Wayne State University Press, 2003, p. 54, ISBN 0-8143-3002-9
2. "The Chantry Bequest">
3. Cite error: The named reference Smith was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

• 1898 paintings
• Paintings depicting Greek myths
• English paintings
• Paintings about death