HERBERT JAMES DRAPER (LONDON 1864-1920)

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 and now at Tate Gallery, London (inv. NO1679). Draper used a number of professional models and made many detailed drawings of each individual figure in preparation. The singing nymph with her arms outstretched in despair on the verso of the present sheet was drawn from Ethel Gurden, while the model for the dying figure of Icarus (recto) was Luigi di Lucca, an Italian model whose distinctive strong bone structure appeared in many of Draper's works of the 1890s.