Clytie Transformed into a Sunflower

Originally designed as an overdoor panel with a curved top, this horizontal painting is a mythological work illustrating a passage from Book IV of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, where the nymph Clytie is transformed into a flower, specifically a heliotrope.^[2]

The composition portrays the young Oceanid seated with her bare breasts, in a landscape bathed in veiled sunlight. She turns and leans lovingly toward the sun. A sunflower begins to grow from the top of her head, also oriented toward the luminous celestial body, extending the nymph’s gesture toward Helios, the sun god.^[3]

The painting belongs to the tradition of mythological allegory and explores themes of unrequited love, transformation, and celestial devotion. Clytie’s metamorphosis into a sunflower symbolizes her eternal gaze toward Helios, embodying both longing and constancy.^[4]

It was part of the inaugural donation made by Pierre Rosenberg to the Musée du Grand Siècle, in Saint-Cloud, where its held.