Narcissus and Echo
Joseph Mallord William Turner, RA (London 1775 - Chelsea 1851)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1804 (exh)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
865 x 1170 mm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Petworth House and Park, West Sussex
NT 486623
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Narcissus and Echo by Joseph Mallord William Turner, RA (London 1775 - Chelsea 1851), 1804. On the right-hand side is a cliff with trees below. In the left foreground are three women on the edge of a pool with Narcissus in the centre kneeling on the far bank. In the left and centre mid-distance are cliffs and a hill with a town by the sea in the centre distance. It was originally exhibited with the following lines, a translation from the Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphoses (Book iii ll. 601–12): “So melts the youth, and languishes away; His beauty withers, and his limbs decay; And none of those attractive charms remain To which the slighted Echo sued in vain. She saw him in his present misery, Whom, spite of all her wrongs, she griev'd to see: She answer'd sadly to the lover's moan, Sigh'd back his sighs, and groan'd to every groan: ‘Ah! youth beloved in vain!’ Narcissus cries; ‘Ah! youth beloved in vain!’ the nymph replies. ‘Farewell!’ says he. The parting sound scarce fell From his faint lips, but she reply'd ‘Farewell!’”
Provenance
Bought from Turner by George Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont (1751-1837) circa 1810. Thence by descent, until the death in 1952 of the 3rd Lord Leconfield, who had given Petworth to the National Trust in 1947, and whose nephew and heir, John Wyndham, 6th Lord Leconfield and 1st Lord Egremont (1920-72) arranged for the acceptance of the major portion of the collections at Petworth in lieu of death duties (the first ever such arrangement) in 1956 by HM Treasury. Accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax. Allocated to Tate in 1984 and on long-term loan from Tate to the National Trust at Petworth.
Credit line
Accepted by HM Government in lieu of tax and allocated to the Tate Gallery 1984. In situ at Petworth House
Makers and roles
Joseph Mallord William Turner, RA (London 1775 - Chelsea 1851), artist
Exhibition history
Turner Inspired, in the Light of Claude, National Gallery, London, 2012