Waterhouse follows Ovid: the youth Narcissus lies on the bank, lost in his own reflection, while the nymph Echo, who can only repeat the words of others, watches him hopelessly from across the stream. Neither looks at the other. The Walker Art Gallery bought the painting in 1903, the year it was shown at the Royal Academy.
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White narcissus flowers already grow beside the youth's foot, foretelling his fate, and a yellow water lily floats in the pool.
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Compared by a vision model
