Commissioned by Frederic Lord Leighton in 1882 after the exhibition of Perseus Arming at the Grosvenor Gallery. The subject is both a homage to Leighton's important painting Daedalus and Icarus and a reflection of Gilbert's view of himself.
“It flashed across me that I was very ambitious: why not Icarus with his desire for flight.”
The significance of the Icarus myth's relevance to Gilbert in the early 1880's, have been examined by Richard Dorment and other Gilbert Scholars, not only the genius of the soaring ambitious youth but also the ignominious crash, mirroring Gilbert's own crash both emotional and financial in later years. There is however no doubt that Gilbert in his choice of subject shows the intensity of his approach to his sculpture and how it mirrored his emotions and self perception.
The first casting of Icarus, Leighton's commission, was a much lager work than the present example, standing 42 inches high. The casting process was undertaken by Gilbert himself at the Sabatino de'Angelis foundry in Naples using the the cire perdue process , signed and dated Rome 1884, it is now in the Collection of the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff.
Literature
R. Dorment, Alfred Gilbert, New Haven and London, 1985, pp.46-49
R. Dorment, Alfred Gilbert Sculptor and Goldsmith, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1986, pp.110-112, nos. 15-17
