Salvador Dalí — Le Jeune Icare, c. 1976
Gouache, watercolor, mixed media and varnish on smooth cardboard
27.2 × 21.1 cm (10 11/16 × 8 5/16 in.), irregular
Signed upper left “Dalí”
Archives Descharnes Ref. d1253
SOLD
Created circa 1976, Le Jeune Icare (The Young Icarus) is an original work by Salvador Dalí conceived in connection with his illustrations for Ovid’s L’Art d’aimer (The Art of Love), published by the Centre Culturel de Paris in 1979.
Dalí transforms the ancient myth of Icarus into a characteristically dreamlike meditation on aspiration, desire and consequence. In the foreground, the young Icarus sits introspectively, his head resting upon his hand, while behind him an elongated, almost weightless figure rises through a landscape of clouds. The contrast is wonderfully Dalinian: contemplation and flight, gravity and weightlessness, earthly uncertainty and impossible ambition coexist within a single intimate composition.
The subject seems particularly appropriate for Dalí. The myth of Icarus has traditionally served as a warning against hubris—the young man who dared to fly too close to the sun—but it can equally be understood as a celebration of mankind’s irresistible desire to transcend its limitations. Dalí spent his career doing precisely that, continually challenging artistic convention and attempting what others considered impossible.
Despite its relatively intimate scale, Le Jeune Icare possesses considerable visual richness. Dalí combines passages of saturated red, green and blue with delicate washes and areas in which the underlying support remains visible. The result retains the spontaneity of an original work on paper while presenting a remarkably complete composition.
The work is signed “Dalí” at the upper left and is accompanied by certification from Nicolas R. Descharnes and Olivier M. Descharnes / Archives Descharnes, dated March 18, 2014, confirming the work to be by the hand of Salvador Dalí and recording it under archive reference d1253.
The composition is additionally documented in connection with Dalí’s graphic oeuvre as illustration 12 for Ovid’s L’Art d’aimer. The related print is recorded in Albert Field’s The Official Catalogue of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dalí, The Salvador Dalí Archives, New York, 1996, p. 121, no. OI79-02-I.
Literature
Albert Field, The Official Catalogue of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dalí, The Salvador Dalí Archives, New York, 1996, p. 121, no. OI79-02-I (related graphic work).
Authentication
Accompanied by an original certificate of authenticity from Archives Descharnes, signed by Nicolas R. Descharnes and Olivier M. Descharnes, dated March 18, 2014, Archive Ref. d1253.
SOLD — Robin Rile Fine Art
