First sketch for 'Icarus'

Details

HERBERT JAMES DRAPER (1864-1920)
First sketch for 'Icarus'
with studio stamp (lower right)
black and white chalk on buff paper, watermarked 'CANNON & MONTGOLFIER'
12 ¾ x 19 ¾ in. (32.5 x 50.2 cm.)

Provenance

The artist, and by descent.
with Julian Hartnoll, London, where purchased for the present collection.

Literature

A.L Baldry, 'Our Rising Artists: Mr. Herbert J. Draper', The Magazine of Art, London, 1899, p. 56.
S. Toll, Herbert Draper 1863-1920, A Life Study, Woodbridge, 2003, p. 184, no. HJD87.xi.

Exhibited

London, Leicester Gallery, 1905.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Adrian Hume-Sayer Director, Specialist

Lot Essay

The Lament of Icarus is one of Draper's best-known works, depicting the eponymous reckless son dragged onto a rock by three mourning nymphs. Exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1898, Draper made many detailed drawings of each individual figure before painting a highly finished composition study. The model for Icarus was an Italian, Luigi di Lucca, whose distinctive strong bone structure appeared in many of Draper's works of the 1890s.

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