Rodin explored the human form in extreme physical and emotional states in a number of works (for example, 'The Prodigal Son'; museum number A.34-1914). Here a winged figure has collapsed on the ground and is held by a second naked female. The group is thought to evoke the vain flight of our illusions, though the intimacy of the two figures may also reflect Rodin's interest in the writing of Baudelaire.

Rodin extracted single figures from groups to create individual pieces, or used existing individual figures in new combinations to form groups. The winged figure here, for example, is based on the Torso of Adèle, first modelled in the late 1880s as a siren figure for a villa in Nice. It was reused later on The Gates of Hell (the bronze portal and doors for the new Museum of Decorative Arts, Paris, which Rodin was asked to design in 1880, where it appears upper left of the tympanum, the rectangular panel immediately above the doors), and as a kneeling figure in Eternal Spring.

Rodin's appreciation of the formal aspects of the human body and his facility for creating new compositions was inspired by his vast collection of models and plaster casts. Turning them in his hand, he examined their formal properties and considered how the different pieces might be combined to create new sculpture.

This group has been known as 'The Fall of Icarus', and 'Illusion falls with broken wings, the earth receives him', but is now generally known by its present title. Just as Rodin changed the formal elements of his sculpture he also changed their titles equally frequently. (See also 'France', Museum no. A.39-1914).