Lot Essay
Clytie was a sea-nymph who loved but was rejected by Apollo, god of the sun. She pined away and was turned into a sunflower, whose head continued to follow the sun's course.
The picture was painted the year the artist married William De Morgan (see lot ) but is signed with the initials of her maiden name, Evelyn Pickering. The image of a girl half-metamorphosed into a plant probably owes something to Burne-Jones's Phyllis and Demophoön, of which the later oil version, re-named The Tree of Forgiveness (Port Sunlight), was exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1882. In fact this picture seems to have made a great impression on Evelyn Pickering, finding another reflection in A Dryad (De Morgan Foundation, Old Battersea House), which she exhibited at the Grosvenor in 1885.
Clytie was bought by the Rev. George Tugwell of Lee, near Ilfracombe, in 1907, and was the subject of an amusing exchange of letters between him and the artist that year. 'Your Clytie', Tugwell wrote on 14 October, 'is hung in our morning room between the sliding door and the china cabinet, the best light we can find for it at present. It looks remarkably well and is quite the light of the room and I am delighted with it and will not forget your wish that I should not mention that you were kind enough to let me have it so considerably under its value that I must always regard it more as a present than a purchase. When I see you again I may - I only say may - discourse on a possible removal of two leaves of the sunflower ...' To this the artist replied firmly the following day: 'I am so glad you like Clytie and it is such a pleasure to me that she should have found a home in your beautiful Lee valley. With regard to what you say about the leaves, I fear any alteration would be impossible as the picture is painted in a peculiar method to obtain brilliancy of colour and varnished, so that any attempt to change now would damage the quality of the painting.'
The picture was painted the year the artist married William De Morgan (see lot ) but is signed with the initials of her maiden name, Evelyn Pickering. The image of a girl half-metamorphosed into a plant probably owes something to Burne-Jones's Phyllis and Demophoön, of which the later oil version, re-named The Tree of Forgiveness (Port Sunlight), was exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1882. In fact this picture seems to have made a great impression on Evelyn Pickering, finding another reflection in A Dryad (De Morgan Foundation, Old Battersea House), which she exhibited at the Grosvenor in 1885.
Clytie was bought by the Rev. George Tugwell of Lee, near Ilfracombe, in 1907, and was the subject of an amusing exchange of letters between him and the artist that year. 'Your Clytie', Tugwell wrote on 14 October, 'is hung in our morning room between the sliding door and the china cabinet, the best light we can find for it at present. It looks remarkably well and is quite the light of the room and I am delighted with it and will not forget your wish that I should not mention that you were kind enough to let me have it so considerably under its value that I must always regard it more as a present than a purchase. When I see you again I may - I only say may - discourse on a possible removal of two leaves of the sunflower ...' To this the artist replied firmly the following day: 'I am so glad you like Clytie and it is such a pleasure to me that she should have found a home in your beautiful Lee valley. With regard to what you say about the leaves, I fear any alteration would be impossible as the picture is painted in a peculiar method to obtain brilliancy of colour and varnished, so that any attempt to change now would damage the quality of the painting.'