Study for 'Clytie'

The present drawing is a preparatory study for Leighton's Clytie, sold, Sotheby's, London, 4 June 1997, lot 154. The finished picture, viewed as one of Leighton's masterpieces, was exhibited posthumously at the Royal Academy in 1896. As we can see in this sketch, Clytie raises her arms as she entreats her lover, Apollo, not to forsake her. The tale of the nymph Clytie's unfulfilled love for the sun-god is found in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book IV. Due to her jealousy Apollo left her, whereupon the distraught nymph remained in a remote place, neither eating or drinking for nine days, watching as her beloved drove his chariot across the sky. Gradually she became rooted to the ground transforming into a flower.