Icarus

Icarus

Sir Alfred Gilbert, R. A. (1854-1934)

1884

Bronze

Height: 18 1/2 inches

W. H. Crawford-Clarke, Esq.

Exhibited: A.A., 1884; Minneapolis Institute of Arts. [British Sculpture 1850-1914, p. 24.]

[For another version]

Frederic Leighton on a visit to Perugia commissioned this bronze statue leaving the choice of subject to Gilbert. Icarus was, at the same time, both a tribute to Leighton's well-known panting, Daedalus and lcarus, and another chapter in the series of autobiographical bronzes. Isabel MacAllister, Gilbert's first biographer, records him saying "It dashed across me that I was very ambitious: why not 'Icarus', with his desire for flight." [Gibson to Gilbert, p. 54.]