This bust is a bronze version of the marble Clytie in the British Museum, London. The marble bust was previously owned by a well-known English collector, Charles Townley. Various reproductions of Clytie were made in the 19th century in marble, plaster and Parian ware (a white porcelain that resembles statuary marble). This one by Nichols was a prize object in the Society of Arts Exhibition held in 1864.

Clythie originates from the Greek myth 'Sunflower' that tells how Clythie, who was the daughter of a king of Babylon, was refused the love of the sun-god Apollo, who fell in love with her sister Leucothea. Clythie became so jealous that her sister then died. Clythie - still rejected by Apollo - more and more turned into the flower that always turns its face towards the sun and in hopeless love follows his daily journey through the heavens.