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Clytie
modeled ca. 1867
Hiram Powers
Born: Woodstock, Vermont 1805
Died: Florence, Italy 1873
plaster
26 x 18 1/2 x 10 1/2 in. (65.9 x 47.0 x 26.8 cm)
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Museum purchase in memory of Ralph Cross Johnson
1968.155.50
Smithsonian American Art Museum
3rd Floor, Luce Foundation Center
"I am trying to make it my best ideal bust . . . Most visitors seem to think it the best." Hiram Powers, 1866, in Richard P. Wunder, Hiram Powers, 1989-91
Clytie is a water nymph from Greek mythology who fell in love with Apollo and never took her eyes off him as he flew across the sky. Eventually, she became a sunflower, forever turning its face with the course of the sun. Hiram Powers likely based this sculpture on an antique Roman bust in the British Museum that was widely reproduced across Europe. Powers added a sunflower to the figure's hair to symbolize Clytie's fate.
For more information about this work visit the Luce Foundation Center.
Keywords
Mythology - classical - Clytie
Study - sculpture model
sculpture
plaster
About Hiram Powers
Born: Woodstock, Vermont 1805 Died: Florence, Italy 1873
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