The artist is Bryullov
This picture is recognized as one of the best works for. Bryullov period of study at the Academy of Arts. In 1819, in the class of Andrei Ivanov was "set" As a task for painters, a male figure is a reclining young man leaning over the water. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, the artist wrote a landscape background in the Park of the Stroganovsky cottage on a black river. For this picture in 1819, Bryullov received a gold medal of the second dignity.
Narcissus, a beautiful young man from Festia or Lacedemon, was the son of the nymphs of Leiriopia and Kefiss. His mother was predicted that he would live until old age if he does not see his face. Narcissus’s young man often hunted in the forests. Once on a hot noon, tired of the heat, Narcissus, who never loved anyone, leaned over the source to quench his thirst and saw his face. As Ovid tells in the third book "Metamorphosis": "He drinks water, and meanwhile – captured by his beauty…". Having forgotten about sleep and food, Narcissa spent days and nights on the shore, admiring his reflection, and died of longing. The gods turned it into a flower, which began to be called a daffodil.
