The Lament for Icarus

The Lament for Icarus, painted in 1898 and now in the Tate collection, is Herbert James Draper's masterpiece and one of the defining paintings of British mythological art at the turn of the twentieth century. The myth of Icarus — who flew too close to the sun on wax wings fashioned by his father Daedalus, causing the wax to melt and sending him plunging into the sea — was one of the central stories of classical antiquity about human overreach and the consequences of ambition. Draper depicts Icarus not falling but already fallen: sea nymphs mourn over his beautiful dead body, the broken feathers of his wings scattered around him. The subject allowed him to deploy his greatest strengths simultaneously — the academic nude, the marine setting, multiple figures in dynamic poses, and an emotional subject with clear classical authority. The work won the gold medal at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900 and established Draper as the leading painter of mythological subjects in Britain.

Oil on canvas on a large, formally ambitious scale. Draper manages the challenge of multiple figures in complex poses in a marine setting with complete technical command. The palette moves from the warm flesh tones of Icarus's body through the cooler blues and greens of the mourning nymphs and sea.