Echo and Narcissus is an oil-on-canvas painting by English painter
John William Waterhouse, dating from 1903, illustrating the myth of
Echo and Narcissus from
Ovid's
Metamorphoses. The nymph Echo was unable to speak except to repeat the last sentence she had heard. She became infatuated with Narcissus, but he spurned her, instead falling in love with his own reflection in a pool. He continued to gaze at his reflection until he faded away, and a narcissus flower grew on the spot where he died. Echo also pined away, until only her voice remained. Exhibited at the
Royal Academy of Arts in 1903, the painting was purchased by the
Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, where it now hangs.
Painting credit: John William Waterhouse