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20 century collection

Introduction
'Madame Hessel on the sofa'
'Bathers, Dieppe'
'Echo and Narcissus'
'Vespers'
'Blackberry Gathering'
'Bust of Alfred Wolmark'
'Under the Hammer'
'Mrs Mounter'
'Hazel in Rose and Gold'
'The Fever Van'
'Landscape of the Moon's last phase'
'Interior at Paddington'
'Creation and Crucifixion'
'Baby in pram in garden'
'Three Self Portraits with a White Wall'
'Falling warrior'
'Primordial Image'
'Hamburg Painting No. 2'
'March 1963'
'Hermaphrodite'
'Pin Up 1963 - For Francis Bacon'
'Yellow, Blue and Violet'
'Gespenstische Gestalt'
'Alesso 'B''
'Peter getting out of Nick's pool'
'Meat Painting II - In Memoriam Rene Magritte'
'Louis XV Rigaud'
'Still life: Autumn fashion'
'Broken Bride 13.6.82'
'Cow Mutations'
'Pall: Ixion'
'Landscape'
'Handles'
'Blotter'
'Double-Tongued Knowability'
'Harmony in Green'
'Willendorf Venus'
'Exposed Painting: Cadmium Orange on White'
'English Family China'
'Mirage'
'Super Star...'

'Echo and Narcissus', John William Waterhouse, 1903

Two partially naked people are either side of a pond. The girl, seated by the narcissus flowers, is looking towards towards the man who only stares at his reflection in the water.

Oil on canvas, 109.2 x 189.2cm

Accession Number WAG2967

In Greek mythology, the unhappy nymph Echo was condemned to repeat the last words spoken to her. She fell in love with the beautiful youth Narcissus. He rejected her and was punished by falling in love with his own reflection. He was trapped by the sight of his own beauty and died. Yellow narcissus flowers grew where he died and Waterhouse has included these in the painting.

Waterhouse was of a younger generation than Rossetti and Burne-Jones. His subjects of doomed and unhappy love were prettier, less disturbing and more widely popular than theirs.