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Clytie
c. 1868
60.5 x 50.5 cm
oil on panel
In Greek mythology Clytie was a nymph who fell desperately in love with the sun god Apollo. Every day she would watch him drive his chariot across the sky from east to west, but her love was never returned.
Apollo turned Clytie from a water nymph into a sunflower but her devotion endured the transformation and every day Clytie's head turned as she marked the sun's progress across the sky, just as the real sunflower does.
In Watts' version of the tale the sorrowful twist of Clytie's neck, trapped in a circle of radiating blossoms, demonstrates her painful yearning.
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