Echo and Narcissus by John William Waterhouse, 1903

A reproduction of "Echo and Narcissus" of 1903 by John William Waterhouse.   This work reflects and captures a moment from Greek and Roman Mythology and is another story in which a young man’s rejection of love leads to his destruction.  His rejection of the attetnions of the nymph Echo that she faded away until only the whisper of her voice remained.  Nemesis heard the prayers of the rejected ladies and arranged for Narcissus to fall in love with his own image .
Waterhouse often re-created scenes from the world of myth as did many of his fellow Pre-Raphaelites.  Waterhouse was born to English painters in Rome who returned to England when he was five years old.  He entered the Royal Academy of Art school in 1871 when he was aged 21 and within three years he had a successful painting.  For the next forty years Waterhouse maintained his success and continued painting until his last illness made productin impossible in 1915.  He died two years later.  This masterpiece is presently in the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide.

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