Endymion

Exhibited at the British Institution in 1833 ('Methought I lay watching the Zenith, / and lo! from opening clouds I saw emerge the lovely moon'). With DPG454, cited in the artist's obituary in the 'Art Journal' 1870, as one of the pictures that most contributed to extending his reputation. The subject is taken from Keat's 'Endymion', 1818, the quotation supplied in the 1833 BI catalogue seems garbled from book one, lines 578-92; the beautiful shepherd Endymion, beloved by the Moon (Diana/Selene) who visits him on Mount Latmos as he sleeps enchanted under her spell.