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Clytie

A work made of plaster.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of plaster.

Date:

1868

Artist:

George Frederick Watts
English, 1817-1904

About this artwork

Clytie, a Greek water nymph, was turned into a sunflower by the gods. The Victorian sculptor George Frederick Watts used this subject as a meditation on transformation, blending male and female elements in this bust, much as Michelangelo had done in his sculptures. Watts’s composite approach gives the work a powerful and experimental quality, which is enhanced by the presence of mold marks. Plaster casts were made from piece molds that left mold lines after casting. Normally these would have been smoothed away, but Watts chose to leave them here. The presence of these lines in the cast invites comparison with bronzes by Watts’s younger contemporary Auguste Rodin, in which mold lines are also preserved.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist

George Frederick Watts

Title

Clytie

Place

England (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Cast 1868

Medium

Plaster

Dimensions

H.: 89 cm (35 in.)

Credit Line

Lacy Armour Endowment; through prior gift of George F. Harding Collection

Reference Number

2005.608

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/186048/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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