Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

The fall of Icarus / Js. Gillray fect.

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James Gillray
1756-1815

The fall of Icarus / Js. Gillray fect.

[London] : Pubd April 20th. 1807, by H. Humphrey 27 St James's Street, [1807]
etching, hand colored
image: 286 x 237 mm; plate mark: 355 x 261 mm; sheet: 481 x 346 mm
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.
1986.349
Notes
16 lines of verses printed in two columns below caption title; first line: In former days the Poet sings ...
Provenance

From the library of Gordon N. Ray.

Summary

Print shows Lord Temple, naked, with large feathered wings, attempting to fly after Buckingham, who is soaring upwards. Feathers, which are quill pens, fall from his wings, and he is about to descend heavily on to a viciously pointed stake which is planted in the cobbles of the roadway. His wings are splashed with red, i.e. with sealing-wax. The stake is inscribed 'Stake out of Public-Hedge!' Buckingham (as Daedalus), whom distance makes much smaller than his bulky nephew, is borne up on intact, outspread wings inscribed 'Tellership of the Exchequer'. Both are struck by broad slanting beams from a sun in the upper right corner of the design containing the head of George III. On the opposite side of the wide roadway is a house representing the Paymaster's house in Whitehall. A servant in livery stands at the door handing up a package to a man in a cart inscribed 'Stationary Office', which is piled with similar packages and bundles of pens. Clouds of black smoke rise from the chimneys but are deflected by the sun.

Associated names
Humphrey, Hannah, active 1774-1817, publisher.
Ray, Gordon N. (Gordon Norton), 1915-1986, former owner.
Classification
Department