# Can you please help me find a painting...I don't rememeber the name of the artist **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 15, 2016, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-please-help-me-find-a-painting-i-dont-rememeber-the-name-of-the-artist/746227 "2016-02-15T21:27:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![quantumleap2016](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f08c70/32.png) [@quantumleap2016](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quantumleap2016)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-please-help-me-find-a-painting-i-dont-rememeber-the-name-of-the-artist/746227/1 "2016-02-15T21:27:07Z")
I am looking for a painting of a sea with a hand flailing in the air. It is so small and so distant that it is so easy to miss that the person is drowning. ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-please-help-me-find-a-painting-i-dont-rememeber-the-name-of-the-artist/746227/2 "2016-02-15T21:54:49Z")
Is it [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landscape_with_the_Fall_of_Icarus#/media/File:Pieter_Bruegel_de_Oude_-_De_val_van_Icarus.jpg) one ? ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-please-help-me-find-a-painting-i-dont-rememeber-the-name-of-the-artist/746227/3 "2016-02-15T21:58:09Z")
Can you be more specific? That’s a pretty common image. > **[30,062 Hand Drown Images, Stock Photos & Vectors | Shutterstock](https://www.shutterstock.com/search/hand-drown)** > > Find Hand Drown stock images in HD and millions of other royalty-free stock photos, illustrations and vectors in the Shutterstock collection. Thousands of new, high-quality pictures added every day. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-please-help-me-find-a-painting-i-dont-rememeber-the-name-of-the-artist/746227/4 "2016-02-15T22:00:06Z")
Not a lot to go on, but is Turner’s Slave Ship in the right ballpark? Do you know what century it was painted in? ---
**Author:** ![quantumleap2016](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f08c70/32.png) [@quantumleap2016](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quantumleap2016)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-please-help-me-find-a-painting-i-dont-rememeber-the-name-of-the-artist/746227/5 "2016-02-15T22:22:45Z")
Thank you so much that is it!!! I’ve been searching for days!! ---
**Author:** ![quantumleap2016](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f08c70/32.png) [@quantumleap2016](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quantumleap2016)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-please-help-me-find-a-painting-i-dont-rememeber-the-name-of-the-artist/746227/6 "2016-02-15T22:24:50Z")
Yes- Right at am77494!! Pieter Bruegel de Oude!! Thank you Doug K and capybara!! ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-please-help-me-find-a-painting-i-dont-rememeber-the-name-of-the-artist/746227/7 "2016-02-15T23:04:49Z")
Just to point out that those are legs/feet flailing and not a hand: “In Greek mythology, Icarus succeeded in flying, with wings made by his father Daedalus, using feathers secured with wax. Ignoring his father’s warnings, Icarus chose to fly too close to the sun, melting the wax, and fell into the sea and drowned. His legs can be seen in the water just below the ship.” > **[Landscape with the Fall of Icarus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landscape_with_the_Fall_of_Icarus)** > > Landscape with the Fall of Icarus is a painting in oil on canvas measuring 73.5 by 112 centimetres (28.9 in × 44.1 in) now in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels. It was long thought to be by the leading painter of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, Pieter Bruegel the Elder. However, following technical examinations in 1996 of the painting hanging in the Brussels museum, that attribution is regarded as very doubtful, and the painting, perhaps painted in the 1560s, is now us... Here’s a closeup [![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landscape_with_the_Fall_of_Icarus#/media/File:Der_Sturz_des_Ikarus_(Ausschnitt).jpg) ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landscape_with_the_Fall_of_Icarus#/media/File:Der_Sturz_des_Ikarus_(Ausschnitt).jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-please-help-me-find-a-painting-i-dont-rememeber-the-name-of-the-artist/746227/8 "2016-02-15T23:16:27Z")
Moved to Cafe Society. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![quantumleap2016](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f08c70/32.png) [@quantumleap2016](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quantumleap2016)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2016, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-please-help-me-find-a-painting-i-dont-rememeber-the-name-of-the-artist/746227/9 "2016-02-16T14:20:12Z")
Thank you gkster!! The close up adds a whole another dimension to it. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2016, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-please-help-me-find-a-painting-i-dont-rememeber-the-name-of-the-artist/746227/10 "2016-02-16T21:23:59Z")
If you are moved by this image, you might enjoy the novel [Headlong](http://www.amazon.com/Headlong-Bestselling-Backlist-Michael-Frayn/dp/0312267460/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1455657837&sr=8-1&keywords=headlong) by Michael Frayn, which is about another Bruegel painting and is specifically based on Bruegel’s use of these dramatic, almost imperceptible background figures and their meaning. IIRC, the book discusses \*The Fall of Icarus \*at some length. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2016, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-please-help-me-find-a-painting-i-dont-rememeber-the-name-of-the-artist/746227/11 "2016-02-16T22:32:02Z")
Brueghel the Elder: the original _Where’s Waldo?_ ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2016, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-please-help-me-find-a-painting-i-dont-rememeber-the-name-of-the-artist/746227/12 "2016-02-16T23:05:53Z")
_Headlong_ is one of Frayn’s best works. But also worth mentioning Auden’s [_Musee des Beaux Arts_](http://english.emory.edu/classes/paintings&poems/auden.html). And, for that matter, William Carlos Williams and [_Landscape with the Fall of Icarus_](http://english.emory.edu/classes/paintings&poems/williams.html). ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-please-help-me-find-a-painting-i-dont-rememeber-the-name-of-the-artist/746227/13 "2016-02-17T00:24:02Z")
> [@bonzer](#): > > But also worth mentioning Auden’s [_Musee des Beaux Arts_](http://english.emory.edu/classes/paintings&poems/auden.html). I was going to post a link to the Auden poem. Except my link would have included this [sweet recap of the X-Files’ “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose.”](http://www.shaenon.com/monsteroftheweek/2013/07/26/07262013/) ---
**Author:** ![quantumleap2016](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f08c70/32.png) [@quantumleap2016](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quantumleap2016)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-please-help-me-find-a-painting-i-dont-rememeber-the-name-of-the-artist/746227/14 "2016-02-19T03:57:34Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > If you are moved by this image, you might enjoy the novel [Headlong](http://www.amazon.com/Headlong-Bestselling-Backlist-Michael-Frayn/dp/0312267460/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1455657837&sr=8-1&keywords=headlong) by Michael Frayn, which is about another Bruegel painting and is specifically based on Bruegel’s use of these dramatic, almost imperceptible background figures and their meaning. IIRC, the book discusses \*The Fall of Icarus \*at some length. Thanks! Will check it out!