A young woman in a pink gown stands at the left beside a tree, one hand gripping a branch, and gazes across a rocky pool. On the bank a young man in a red cloth sprawls on his stomach, leaning out over the water to look at his own face in it. A straw hat lies in the grass, yellow irises grow at the water's edge, and a river winds through the meadow behind. The woman is the nymph Echo and the youth is Narcissus.

In the Walker's account of the Roman myth, Narcissus becomes infatuated with his own reflection and so despises Echo, who pines away until only her voice remains. John William Waterhouse painted and signed the picture in 1903; the gallery says Echo's cramped pose conveys the frustration of unrequited love, one of his favorite themes. It was shown at the Royal Academy in London in 1903, where the Art Journal called it one of the best examples of imaginative art in the Academy. The Walker Art Gallery bought it that year from the Liverpool Autumn Exhibition.

It is in the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.