- Artist
- Thomas Stothard 1755–1834
- Medium
- Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions
- Frame: 434 × 460 × 70 mm
support: 324 × 352 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased 1879
- Reference
- N01069
Display caption
Thomas Stothard depicts a scene here from the Roman poet Ovid’s mythological narrative, Metamorphoses. The boy Narcissus, obsessed with his own reflection in the water, wastes away and turns into a flower. Here a group of nymphs discover the flower growing on the riverbank. The painting was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1793. Stothard’s steadiest form of income was book illustration, but his reputation as a history painter was beginning to grow in the 1790s. It was on this basis that he was elected a full member of the Royal Academy in 1794.
Gallery label, October 2023
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