Gouache painting by Arthur Hughes entitled 'The White Hind'. Great Britain, ca. 1870.

Gouache of a young girl tending to a white deer which has been shot with an arrow by a hunter visible on horseback in the background. The plumed arrow lies on the grass next to a white rabbit who looks on.

The subject is taken from the famous long poem by John Keats, Endymion, first published in 1818, and based on the story told by the Greek classical writer Lucian. Selene, the goddess of the moon, fell in love with Endymion, a beautiful youth - in Keats's poem a 'brain-sick shepherd-prince'. In return for perpetual youth, Endymion is made by the gods to fall into a permanent sleep, 'a sleep full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing', giving us one of the most quoted lines in English literature - 'a thing of beauty is a joy forever'. But Keats weaves many other episodes into his narrative, such as here, when Endymion has shot a hind.

Hughes exhibited another painting of the subject at the Royal Academy in 1870.

Arthur Hughes (1832-1915) found the subject for this painting in the poem Endymion by John Keats (1795-1821). Endymion, published in 1818, was based on the story told by the classical Greek writer Lucian. However, Keats added many episodes to the story, such as the one depicted in this watercolour, in which Endymion shoots a hind.

P.8-1966