By Kind Permission of a Private Collection
By Kind Permission of a Private Collection
Claude Lorrain, Landscape with Narcissus and Echo (1644) (Oil on canvas, 94.6 x 118cm). National Gallery, no. 19. The painting, based on a narrative from Ovid's Metamorphoses, represents the myth of Narcissus, the exquisite youth who was caused to fall in love with his own reflection by the goddess Nemesis. Echo was a nymph who fell in love with Narcissus but was cursed and unable to tell the youth of her love. The 1995 National Gallery Catalogue suggests that Echo is 'probably the middle nymph at the left, who seems to be calling out' (p.125). The catalogue also notes that the painting is 'recorded on sheet no.77 of Claude's Liber Veritatis... which is inscribed: quadro facit pour Angleter' ( Baker and Henry, National Gallery Catalogue, p.125). The painting is one of only two works by Claude that have been established as having been commissioned by English patrons (the other, Landscape with a Temple of Bacchus, Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada). The painting came into the collection of Sir George Beaumont by 1790 and was his gift to the National Gallery, 1823-1828.
Claude Gellée (le Lorrain) 1600-82
Landscape with Narcissus and Echo 1644
Oil on canvas, 94.6x118cm
Provenance: Peter Delmé, London, 1743; Sir George Beaumont by 1790; his Gift, 1823-8
Collection: National Gallery, London