A celebrated painting JW Waterhouse has been removed from display at the Manchester Art Gallery, in an act the museum says aims to "challenge this Victorian fantasy" of "the female body as either a 'passive decorative form' or a 'femme fatale'".

Inspired by Greek mythology, Waterhouse's 1896 painting Hylas and the Nymphs shows a young man being abducted by nude water nymphs, and usually hangs in a room of 19th century art called In Pursuit of Beauty.

Clare Gannaway, the museum's curator of contemporary art, has called the In Pursuit of Beauty collection a cause for "embarrassment." Gannaway told the Guardian that recent anti-sexual harassment campaigns such as Time's Up and #MeToo had an influence on the decision to remove the painting.

“For me personally, there is a sense of embarrassment that we haven’t dealt with it sooner. Our attention has been elsewhere," Gannaway said. "We’ve collectively forgotten to look at this space and think about it properly... It wasn’t about denying the existence of particular artworks.”

The decision has prompted a backlash on social media. Dr Cath Feely, a senior lecturer in history at the University of Derby, described Hylas and the Nymphs as a "one of the jewels of a public collection". Waterhouse, whose painting The Lady of Shalott is permanently on display at Tate Britain, is one of the best known pre-Raphaelite artists.