Echo and Narcissus (Waterhouse painting)
Echo and Narcissus | |
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Artist | John William Waterhouse |
Year | 1903 |
Medium | Oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 109.2 cm × 189.2 cm (43 in × 74 in) |
Location | Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool |
Echo and Narcissus is a 1903 oil painting by John William Waterhouse. It illustrates the myth of Echo and Narcissus from Ovid's Metamorphoses.
John William Waterhouse (1847–1917) was an English painter who, because of his style and themes, is generally classified as a
In Ovid's version of the myth,
The painting is set in an idyllic wooded landscape beside a stream with rocky edges. The young Narcissus is lying prone, with his head over the water, fascinated by his own reflection. He is half-clad in a red robe, symbolising his flaming self-desire. The nymph Echo sits nearby across the stream, clasping a tree with her right hand, gazing at Narcissus in despair. She is symbolically separated from Narcissus, who does not look back towards her. Her cramped posture reflects her unrequited love. She is wearing a pink robe that has fallen off the left shoulder to reveal one breast; the milder pink of her robe reflects less passionate, smouldering love for Narcissus. Near her grow some yellow flag irises, Iris pseudacorus, and she wears a red poppy in her auburn hair. Some white narcissi have emerged from the grass beside the youth's foot, and a yellow water lily, Nuphar lutea, is in the water.
The painting is in
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Study for Echo, c.1903
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Study for Echo, c.1903
See also
References
- ^ John William Waterhouse, jwwaterhouse.com, retrieved 22 April 2010
- ISBN 1-85759-037-6
- Echo and Narcissus, John William Waterhouse (1849–1917), Walker Art Gallery, ArtUK
- Echo and Narcissus, John William Waterhouse, 1903, Google Arts & Culture
- Echo and Narcissus, John William Waterhouse, 1903, WAG 2967, Walker Art Gallery