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The Fall of Icarus - II diptych panel

VR-All-Art

Vlaho Bukovac

Oil on canvas

56.5 x 128.5 cm

Not For Sale

The Daedalus and Icarus diptych is one of Bukovac’s most exhibited paintings in his lifetime. The first wing illustrates Daedalus and Icarus’ preparation for flight and it is painted in a lighter palette with wide brushstrokes and thick paint coats. Unlike the first wing, the second wing depicts the fall of Icarus. It is painted darker and more freely, the shades of green and blue are dominant, and as a whole it is imbued with the secessionist atmosphere typical for the fin de siècle epoch. Though different in terms of composition, both wings of the diptych complete one another, representing a well-rounded notion and a perfectly painted piece. An interesting fact reported by the Viennese media of the period is that, in order to portray the fall of Icarus as realistically as possible, Bukovac himself jumped into the sea along with the model.

Exhibitions with this piece

National Museum in Belgrade

Vlaho Bukovac

Selected Artworks

Born in July 1855, the Croatian artist began his career in France where he painted in what is described as a “sugary” realistic style and gained great success at the Paris Salon. In 1887, Bukovac created what is possibly his best-known work, a nude Une Fleur (A Flower). The painting was well-received not only in France at the time, but it garnered numerous reviews and publications during his lifetime. Over the years he spent actively creating art, Bukovac’s style saw numerous changes – he was no stranger to stepping out of the set boundaries and rules dictated by the Salon. Both his life and work were nothing short of eclectic. The National Museum of Serbia keeps twenty-three of Vlaho Bukovac’s paintings. Between the portrait of Queen Natalie of Serbia (Natalija Obrenovic) made in 1882 and the portrait of King Alexander I (Aleksandar I Karadjordjevic) painted just before Bukovac’s death, there is a humble but stylistically and thematically diverse gallery of the artist’s oeuvre. Based on the established chronology and defined formative categories in painting, Bukovac’s artworks from the collection of the National Museum in Belgrade encompass almost all of the phases in his creative life – academism, realism, impressionism and symbolism, and as such they are represented for the first time in one place.

View exhibition

Other works by Vlaho Bukovac