A young man in a blue-gray tunic with a red sash leans forward from the bank over a dark pond, while a ring of pale young women rises from the water among lily pads. The nearest takes hold of his arm; six more, nearly identical, watch from around her. Yellow irises grow at the upper right. The gallery tells the story this way: on the Argonauts' voyage the young Hylas was sent to find fresh water, found a spring, and as he filled his pitcher was surrounded by water nymphs.

John William Waterhouse painted it in 1896; in his hands, the gallery says, the myth becomes an evocation of sensual female flesh and the deadly allure of the femme fatale. The gallery bought the picture directly from Waterhouse in 1896. On January 26, 2018, it took the painting off the wall for seven days as part of an artist-led evening takeover, to prompt conversation about how it displays and interprets art; the move drew accusations of censorship, and the picture was rehung after the week. It is in the Manchester Art Gallery in Manchester.