William Etty

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This article is about the painter. For the architect, see William Etty (architect).

William Etty

William Etty, self-portrait based on an October 1844 photograph

by Hill & Adamson

Born 10 March 1787

York, England, Kingdom of Great Britain

Died 13 November 1849 (aged 62)

York, England, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

Restin St Olave's Church, York, England, United Kingdom

place
Educa Thomas Lawrence

tion

Alma  Royal Academy Schools

mater

Know Painting

n for

 The Triumph of Cleopatra (1821)

Notab
 The Combat: Woman Pleading for the
le
Vanquished (1825)
work
 Youth on the Prow, and Pleasure at the Helm (1832)

 The Sirens and Ulysses (1837)

 Musidora: The Bather 'At the Doubtful Breeze

Alarmed' (1843)

Style English school of painting

Electe Royal Academician

d
William Etty RA (10 March 1787 – 13 November 1849) was

an English artist best known for his history

paintingscontaining nude figures. He was the first significant

British painter of nudes and still lifes. Born in York, he left

school at the age of 12 to become an apprentice printer in Hull.

He completed his apprenticeship seven years later and moved

to London, where in 1807 he joined the Royal Academy

Schools. There he studied under Thomas Lawrence and trained

by copying works by other artists. Etty earned respect at

the Royal Academy of Arts for his ability to paint realistic flesh

tones, but had little commercial or critical success in his first

few years in London.

Etty's Cleopatra's Arrival in Cilicia, painted in 1821, featured

numerous nudes and was exhibited to great acclaim. Its success

prompted several further depictions of historical scenes with

nudes. All but one of the works he exhibited at the Royal

Academy in the 1820s contained at least one nude figure, and

he acquired a reputation for indecency. Despite this, he was

commercially successful and critically acclaimed, and in 1828

was elected a Royal Academician, at the time the highest

honour available to an artist. Although he was one of the most

respected artists in the country he continued to study at life

classes throughout his life, a practice considered inappropriate

by his fellow artists. In the 1830s Etty began to branch out into

the more lucrative but less respected field of portraiture, and

later became the first English painter to paint significant still

lifes. He continued to paint both male and female nudes, which

caused severe criticism and condemnation from some elements

of the press.

An extremely shy man, Etty rarely socialised and never

married. From 1824 until his death he lived with his niece

Betsy (Elizabeth Etty). Even in London he retained a keen

interest in his native York, and was instrumental in the

establishment of the town's first art school and the campaign to

preserve York city walls. While he never formally converted

from his Methodist faith, he was deeply attached to the Roman

Catholic Church and was one of the few non-Catholics to

attend the 1838 opening of Augustus Pugin's chapel for St

Mary's College, Oscott, at that time England's most important

Roman Catholic building.

Etty was prolific and commercially successful throughout the

1840s, but the quality of his work deteriorated throughout this

period. As his health progressively worsened he retired to York

in 1848. He died in 1849, shortly after a major retrospective

exhibition. In the immediate aftermath of his death his works

became highly collectable and sold for large sums. Changing

tastes meant his work later fell out of fashion, and imitators

soon abandoned his style. By the end of the 19th century the

value of all of his works had fallen below their original prices,

and outside his native York he remained little known

throughout the 20th century. Etty's inclusion in Tate Britain's

landmark Exposed: The Victorian Nudeexhibition in 2001–02,

the high-profile restoration of his The Sirens and Ulysses in

2010 and a major retrospective of his work at the York Art

Gallery in 2011–12 led to renewed interest in his work.

 Contents

 1Background

 2Childhood and apprenticeship (1787–1805)

 3Training (1806–1821)

o 3.1Thomas Lawrence

o 3.2France and Italy

 3.2.1The Coral
Finder

 4Recognition and travels (1821–1823)

o 4.1Travels in Europe

 4.1.1Venice

 5Success and controversy (1824–1835)

o 5.1Betsy Etty

o 5.2The Combat

o 5.3Royal Academician

 5.3.1Life classes

 5.3.2Hero and
Leander

 5.3.3Candaules

 5.3.4Youth and
Pleasure and The
Destroying Angel

o 5.4Illness and recovery

 o 5.5Etty and York

 6Later life (1836–1849)

o 6.1The Sirens and Ulysses

o 6.2Decline

 6.2.1Musidora an
d Joan of Arc

o 6.3Retrospective and death

 7Legacy

 8Footnotes

 9References

o 9.1Notes

o 9.2Bibliography

 10External links

Background[edit]

Sir Watkin Williams-Wynnand his mother Frances Shack-

erley, Joshua Reynolds, c.  1768–69. By the early 19th
century Reynolds's style dominated British art.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, British painting was

strongly influenced by Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792), the first

president of the Royal Academy of Arts (RA). Reynolds

believed the purpose of art was "to conceive and represent their

subjects in a poetical manner, not confined to mere matter of

fact", and that artists should emulate Renaissance painters such

as Rubens, Paolo Veroneseand Raphael and make their subjects

close to perfection.[1]After Reynolds's death his Discourses on

Art, which extolled the notion of an artist's duty to paint

idealised subjects, remained Britain's primary theoretical work

on art.[1] The Royal Academy dominated British art, with the

annual Royal Academy Summer Exhibition the most important

event in the calendar.[2] The Royal Academy also controlled the

prestigious Royal Academy art schools, which had an effective

monopoly on the training of new artists and which taught with

a very narrow focus on approved techniques.[2][3] While painters

such as J. M. W. Turner (a strong supporter of the Royal

Academy) were beginning to move away from the influence of

the Old Masters to create uniquely British styles, they adhered

to principles established by Reynolds.[4]

In the opinions then current at the Royal Academy and among

critics, the most prestigious form of painting was

considered history painting, in which an artwork illustrated a

story. It was thought that such works enabled British artists to

show themselves as equal or even superior to those European

artists active at the time, as well as to the Old Masters.[5] Other

forms of painting such as portraiture and landscapes were

considered lesser styles, as they did not give the artist as much

opportunity to illustrate a story but instead were simply

depictions of reality.[6] Nonetheless, even the most eminent

artists would often devote time to portrait painting, as portraits

were generally commissioned by the subjects or their families,

providing a guaranteed source of income to the artist;[7] two of

the first three presidents of the Royal Academy (Joshua

Reynolds and Sir Thomas Lawrence) had made their names as

portrait painters.[5][A] Owing to a lack of patrons willing to

commission history paintings, by the early 19th century history

painting in England was in serious decline.[9]

Childhood and apprenticeship (1787–

1805)[edit]
I counted the years, days, weeks, and hours, till liberty should

break my chains and set my struggling spirit free! That hour,

that golden hour of 12, on the 23rd of October, 1805, I

watched on the dial-plate of Hull High Church, and felt such a

throb of delight as for seven long years I had been a stranger

to! I was now entirelyemancipated from servitude and slavery;

I was flapping my young wings in the triumphant feeling

of liberty! Not the liberty of licentiousness and jacobinism, but

natural rational freedom of body, mind and will, to which for

seven long years I had been an entire stranger! [...] Seven long

years I patiently bided my time, but the iron went into my soul.

William Etty on the 1805 completion of his apprenticeship, in

his Autobiography written November 1848[10]

William Etty was born in Feasegate, York, on 10 March 1787,

the seventh child of Matthew and Esther Etty, née Calverley.

[11]
 Although Matthew Etty was a successful miller and baker,
[B]
 he bore a large family and was never financially secure.
[11]
Esther Calverley's brother unexpectedly inherited the title
of Squire of Hayton in 1745, nine years before Esther's birth,
[11]
 but disowned her following her marriage to Matthew, whom

he considered as beneath her station.[12] The family were

strict Methodists and William was raised as such, although he

disliked the spartan appearance of the Methodist chapel and

liked to attend his Anglican parish church or York

Minster when able.[13]

He showed artistic promise from an early age, drawing in chalk

on the wooden floor of his father's shop.[14] From the age of four

he attended local schools in York, before being sent at the age

of 10 to Mr. Hall's Academy, a boarding school in

nearby Pocklington, which he left two years later.[15] On

8 October 1798, at the age of 11, William was apprenticed as a

printer to Robert Peck of Hull, publisher of the Hull Packet.[13]

[C]
 While Etty found the work exhausting and unpleasant, he

continued to draw in his spare time, and his job gave him the

opportunity to broaden his education by reading books.[13] It

seems likely that it was working as a printer that led him to

realise for the first time that it was possible for someone to

make a living drawing and painting.[16]

On 23 October 1805, Etty's seven-year indenture with Peck

expired, an event greeted with great happiness as he intensely

disliked the job.[17] He remained in Hull for a further three

weeks as a journeyman printer.[10] He moved to London "with a

few pieces of chalk-crayons in colours",[18] to stay with his

older brother Walter in Lombard Street.[15] Walter worked for

the successful gold lace manufacturer Bodley, Etty and Bodley,

with whom their father's brother, also named William, was

partner.[17] He arrived in London on 23 November 1805,[19] with

the intention of gaining admission to the Royal Academy

Schools.[20]

Training (1806–1821)[edit]

Sketches from the Elgin Marbles by William Etty. Aspiring

students were expected to draw from classical sculptures
as part of the admission process.

Applicants to the Royal Academy Schools were expected to

pass stringent ability tests, and on his arrival in London Etty set

about practicing,[20]drawing "from prints and from nature".

[10]
 Aware that all successful applicants were expected to

produce high quality drawings of classical sculptures, he spent

much time "in a plaster-cast shop, kept by Gianelli, in that lane

near to Smithfield, immortalised by Dr. Johnson's visit to see

'The Ghost' there",[D] which he described as

"My first academy".[10]

Etty obtained a letter of introduction from Member of

Parliament Richard Sharp to painter John Opie.[10] He visited

Opie with this letter, and showed him a drawing he had done

from a cast of Cupid and Psyche.[21] Impressed, Opie

recommended Etty to Henry Fuseli, who accepted him into the

Royal Academy Schools as a probationer. Having satisfactorily

completed drawings from casts of Laocoön and "the Torso of

Michelangelo",[E] Etty was accepted as a full student on

15 January 1807.[22]

The Missionary Boy (1805–06) is thought to be Etty's oldest

significant surviving painting.[20][F]

Shortly after Etty joined the RA, four major lectures on

painting were delivered by John Opie in February and March

1807. In them, Opie said that painting "brings into view the

heroes, sages, and beauties of the earliest periods, the

inhabitants of the most distant regions, and fixes and

perpetuates the forms of the present day; it presents to us the

heroic deeds, the remarkable events, and the interesting

examples of piety, patriotism and humanity of all ages; and

according to the nature of the action depicted, fills us with

innocent pleasure, excites our abhorrence of crimes, moves us

to piety, or inspires us with elevated sentiments".[24] Opie

rejected Reynolds's tradition of idealising the subjects of

paintings, observing that he did not believe "that the flesh of

heroes is less like flesh than that of other men".[25] Opie advised

his students to pay great attention to Titian, whose use of

colour he considered unsurpassed, advising students that

"colouring is the sunshine of the art, that clothes poverty in

smiles [...] and doubles the charms of beauty.[26] Opie's opinions

made a deep impression on the young Etty, and he would hold

these views throughout his career.[27]

Thomas Lawrence[edit]

Lady Mary Templetown and Her Eldest Son, Thomas

Lawrence, 1802

Mary, Lady Templeton [sic], after Thomas Lawrence,

William Etty, 1807–08
By the time Etty painted Mary, Lady Templeton the original
would no longer have been in Lawrence's possession; he
almost certainly copied from one of Lawrence's preliminary
sketches.

By this time, Etty had developed a great admiration for the

portrait painter Thomas Lawrence, and hoped to learn from

him. Having arranged an introduction via Henry Fuseli, Etty's

uncle William met with Lawrence and paid him

100 guineas (about £8,400 in 2021 terms[28]) in return for his

accepting the younger William as a private pupil for a year.[29]

Under this arrangement Etty did not receive formal tuition from

Lawrence. Instead, Lawrence set aside a room in his attic for

Etty to copy from his pictures, and agreed to answer questions

when he was in a position to do so.[29] Etty found the experience

of copying Lawrence's work extremely frustrating, and in his

own words "was ready to run away", but he persisted and

eventually taught himself to copy Lawrence's work very

closely.[30] Although Etty found his year with Lawrence a

frustrating experience, his development of the ability to copy

other works served him in good stead in future when he came

to copy elements from the Old Masters.[30]

Once he had completed his year with Lawrence, Etty returned

to the Royal Academy, drawing at the life class and copying

other paintings, as well as undertaking commissions and doing

occasional work for Lawrence to earn money.[30][31] He was

unsuccessful in all the Academy's competitions, and every

painting he submitted for the Summer Exhibition was rejected.

[30]

In 1809 Etty's uncle William, with whom he had been staying,

died.[30] He was forced into an inconvenient transient lifestyle,

moving from lodging to lodging.[30] Etty had been left a

significant sum in his uncle's will, and his brother Walter now

took over their uncle's position at Bodley, Etty and Bodley,

giving Walter the means to support the younger William's work

financially.[32] In 1811 Etty's persistence paid off. Two of his

paintings were accepted for the Telemachus Rescues Antiope

from the Fury of the Wild Boar exhibition at the Royal

Academy Summer Exhibition, and Sappho at the British

Institution.[33] The latter sold for the respectable sum of 25

guineas (about £1,800 in 2021 terms[28]).[34][G] Although from

now on Etty had at least one work accepted for the Summer

Exhibition each year,[33] he had little commercial success and

generated little interest over the next few years.[35] By 1814,

Etty was becoming widely respected at the RA for his use of

colour and in particular his ability to produce realistic flesh

tones.[36]

France and Italy[edit]

Male Nude with Staff(1814–16). Although a commercial

failure in the 1810s, Etty was greatly respected at the RA
for his ability to paint realistic flesh tones.

At the time, there were no public art galleries in England with

permanent collections.[37][H] In 1816, in the face of his continued

lack of success, Etty decided to spend a year in Italy to study

the artworks held in the great Italian collections.[40] He had

made a brief visit to France in early 1815, but other than this

had never been abroad.[41][I] The 28-year-old Etty had fallen in

love,[J] and fretted about the difficulties a potential marriage

would cause, and whether it would be right to travel to further

his career even though it would mean taking his new wife to a

foreign country.[40] In the event, the woman rejected him, and he

set out for the Continent in early September 1816.[40]

Etty landed in Dieppe, and made his way to Paris via Rouen.

Although he admitted to finding France a beautiful country, he

was unhappy throughout his stay there, suffering from severe

homesickness; shortly after his arrival in Paris he wrote to his

cousin Martha Bodley that "I hope I shall like Italy better than

Paris, or I think I shall not feel resolution to stop a year. If I

don't, I shall content myself with seeing what I think worth

while; and then return."[42] He travelled onwards via Geneva,

but found Switzerland frustrating; although he had brought his

own tea-making equipment with him, in the remoter mountain

villages he found it difficult to obtain milk for his tea.

 Travelling through the Simplon Pass to Piedmont revived his

[42]

spirits somewhat; he found the variety of colour in the

landscapes of northern Italy fascinating, and in late September

arrived in Florence.[42]

Miss Mary Arabella Jay(1819), one of the earliest paintings

exhibited by Etty at the Summer Exhibition to survive. Etty's
style at this time was still heavily influenced by Lawrence.

Despite the grandeur of Florence, Etty was severely depressed,

writing to his brother on 5 October that "I feel so lonely, it is

impossible for me to be happy" and complaining of "the vermin

in the bed, the dirt and the filth" which he considered "such as

no Englishman can have any idea of, who has not witnessed it".

 His emotional state made it impossible for him to study, and

[42]
within a month of his arrival in Italy, he began the journey back

to England, stopping in Paris on 26 October 1816.[42] There he

enrolled in the atelier of Jean-Baptiste Regnault but found the

atmosphere rowdy and the studio too full of Frenchmen, and he

left after a week.[43] While in Paris he also attended

the Académie des Beaux-Arts, and amassed a large quantity

of prints from the art shops of Paris.[43] Still homesick, Etty left

Paris, returning to London in November.[43]

Notwithstanding his unhappiness, Etty appears to have

developed as a painter during his travels. For the first time, his

two paintings exhibited at the 1817 Summer Exhibition

(Bacchanalians: a Sketch and Cupid and Euphrosyne) attracted

a favourable review in the press, in this case from William

Paulet Carey writing in the Literary Gazette who

considered Bacchanalians "a fine classical invention"

and Cupidas showing "splendid promise".[44] Carey was later to

take great pride in being the first critic to recognise Etty's

potential, and continued to champion him throughout his

career.[44] In 1818 Etty entered a copy of Damiano Mazza's The

Rape of Ganymede—at the time thought to be by Titian—in

one of the Royal Academy's painting competitions. Easily the

most accomplished entry in the competition, Etty was due to

win until two of the other contestants complained that he had

technically breached RA rules by briefly removing the painting

from Academy premises to work on it at home;[45] they further

complained that Etty was technically a professional artist and

thus ineligible for the contest despite his still being a student.

 Etty was disqualified from the competition, but the high

[46]

quality of his work further raised his prestige within the

Academy.[46] Although his income was still low and he was

surviving on gifts from his brother, at some point by 1818 Etty

hired an assistant, George Henry Franklin.[47][K]

The Coral Finder[edit]

The Coral Finder (1820)

At the 1820 Summer Exhibition, Etty exhibited two

paintings: Drunken Barnaby and The Coral Finder: Venus and

her Youthful Satellites Arriving at the Isle of Paphos.

 Drunken Barnaby is a scene of a drunken man being carried

[49]

away from an inn while a barmaid looks on; the barmaid is

shown as sturdily built, plump and rosy-cheeked, a style in

which Etty continued to paint women throughout his career.

 The Coral Finder is strongly inspired by Titian, and

[50]

depicts Venus Victrix lying nude in a golden boat, surrounded

by scantily clad attendants. It was Etty's first use of the

combination of nude figures and mythological or literary

references for which he was to become famous.[51]

The Coral Finder was sold at exhibition to piano manufacturer

Thomas Tomkinson for £30 (about £2,400 in 2021 terms[28]).

 Sir Francis Freeling had admired The Coral Finder at its

[52]

exhibition, and on learning that it had already been sold he

commissioned Etty to paint a similar picture on a more

ambitious scale, for a fee of 200 guineas (about £16,900 in

2021 terms[28]).[53] Etty had for some time been musing on the

possibility of a painting of Cleopatra, and took the opportunity

provided by Freeling to paint a picture of her based loosely on

the composition of The Coral Finder.[51]

Recognition and travels (1821–1823)

[edit]
Cleopatra's Arrival in Cilicia (1821)

Cleopatra's Arrival in Cilicia (also known as The Triumph of

Cleopatra) is based loosely on Plutarch's Life of Antony and

Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, in which the Queen of

Egypt travels to Tarsus in Cilicia aboard a grand ship to cement

an alliance with the Roman general Mark Antony.[51] While

superficially similar to The Coral Finder, Cleopatra is more

closely related to the style of Regnault, with its intentionally

cramped and crowded composition.[54] The individual figures

are out of proportion to each other and the ship, while many

figures are tightly positioned within a small section of the

painting.[54] As well as from Regnault, the work borrows

elements from Titian, Rubens and classical sculpture.[54]

When exhibited in 1821, Cleopatra was generally extremely

well received, and considered among the finest paintings of its

kind,[54] and its success inspired Etty to paint more works in a

similar vein.[55] The exhibition of Cleopatra, coupled with the

exhibition in January 1822 of A Sketch from One of Gray's

Odes (Youth on the Prow) which also depicted nude figures on

a boat,[L] drew criticism of Etty for his treatment of female

nudes.[47] The Times in early 1822 chided Etty, remarking that

"We take this opportunity of advising Mr. Etty, who got some

reputation for painting "Cleopatra's Galley", not to be seduced

into a style which can gratify only the most vicious taste.

Naked figures, when painted with the purity of Raphael, may

be endured: but nakedness without purity is offensive and

indecent, and on Mr. Etty's canvass is mere dirty

flesh."[56] Unlike nude studies by other artists of the period, Etty

made no attempt to idealise the female nudes in Cleopatra, but

instead painted them in realistic poses and realistic flesh tones.

 Possibly alarmed by the criticism, Freeling persuaded Etty to

[47]

paint clothes onto some of the figures in Cleopatra, although in

1829 he allowed Etty to return the figures to the state in which

he had originally painted them.[47]

William Etty, self-portrait, 1823

The success of Cleopatra notwithstanding, Etty remained a

student at the RA and continued with a rigorous programme of

study.[36] Now in his mid 30s, he felt that for his work to

progress beyond mere competence he needed a chance to study

those European masters whose styles he most admired, despite

his unpleasant experiences the last time he left England.[57]

Travels in Europe[edit]

Recalling his homesickness and loneliness the last time he had

ventured abroad, for his next foreign trip Etty travelled in the

company of Richard Evans, who had been a fellow student of

Thomas Lawrence.[58] Despite warnings that Italy would be

uncomfortably hot, the two men set out on 23 June 1822 with

the aim of reaching Rome. Crossing to France by means of the

recently developed steamboat, they arrived in Paris on 26 June.

 They stayed in Paris for two weeks, visiting Versailles and

[58]

the city's public art galleries; they also visited the much-
reduced remaining exhibits of the Louvre.[M] The Louvre was

hosting an exhibition of modern French painting at the time, at

which Etty felt a great dislike for the quality of portraiture in

France, but he was nonetheless greatly impressed by the

permanent collections, in particular Rubens's Marie de' Medici

cycle, elements of which he later reused in many of his own

works.[58]

Travelling onwards through Dijon and Switzerland, Etty and

Evans passed over the Simplon Pass and on to Milan, where

they viewed Leonardo's The Last Supper and visited the Brera

Gallery. After a sixteen-day cabriolet ride through the gruelling

heat of an unusually hot summer, the two men

reached Florence, where they stayed for two days visiting the

city's galleries. On 10 August, the two men reached Rome.[59]

Although Etty was somewhat disappointed by Rome,

comparing the architecture of St. Peter's unfavourably with that

of St. Paul's, he was highly impressed with Michelangelo's

"almost Venetian" use of colour in the Sistine Chapel.[59] He

also met with Antonio Canova, to whom he had been

recommended by Lawrence, shortly before Canova's death.

Rome was at the time suffering badly from malaria, and after

[59]

two weeks Etty decided to leave for Naples.[60] Evans had

contracted malaria and decided to stay in Rome,[49] and so Etty

travelled to Naples alone and returned to Rome in the company

of actor William Macready, who happened to be making the

same journey, and with whom he remained a good friend for

the rest of his life.[60] On his return to Rome, Etty toured the

city's museums, making copies of various artworks, particularly

those of the Venetian artists such as Titian and Veronese whom

he so admired.[60]

Venice[edit]
The  Bridge of Sighs, Venice (1835) was painted from pencil
sketches made by Etty during his 1822 visit.[61][N]

Feeling unsettled, Etty left Rome for Venice, intending to

remain there for 10 days and then return to England.[62]Evans

preferred to remain in Rome, so Etty travelled alone, pausing

briefly in Florence and in Ferrara (where he stopped to kiss the

armchair of Ludovico Ariosto).[63] The painter Charles Lock

Eastlake, then resident in Rome, had provided Etty with a letter

of introduction to Harry D'Orville, British Vice consul in

Venice; D'Orville was so impressed with Etty that he arranged

for him to stay in his own house, rather than in lodgings.[63] Etty

had long considered Venice his spiritual home and "the hope

and idol of my professional life", and had often wondered why,

given its artistic importance, so few English travellers visited

the city. He was not disappointed. Throughout the remainder of

his life, he looked back on his visit to Venice with great

fondness, writing shortly before his death that "Venezia, cara

Venezia! thy pictured glories haunt my fancy now!"[63]

Although Etty had only intended to stay for 10 days, he was so

taken with Venice that he remained for over seven months.

 He fell into a routine of copying paintings in Venetian

[63]

collections by day, and attending the life class of the Venetian

Academy of Fine Arts by night,[64] producing around 50 oil

paintings in total as well as numerous pencil sketches.[65]He was

extremely impressed with the high quality of the Venetian

Academy; the instructors in their turn were extremely

impressed with the quality of Etty's work, in particular his flesh

tones.[65] He acquired the nickname of "Il Diavolo" owing to the

high speed at which he was able to paint, and watching him at

work became something of a spectacle in its own

right; Gioachino Rossini, Ladislaus Pyrker (then Patriarch of

Venice) and others came to watch him paint.[65] So devoted was

Etty to his studies in Venice that he exhibited no original work

in 1823, writing to his brother that "If one spent all the time in

painting originals, one might as well, nay better, be at home".

[64]
 The members of the Venetian Academy were so impressed

by Etty that he was elected an Honorary Academician.[65][O]

Etty's 1823 copy of Titian's Venus of Urbino was considered

among the finest copies of that painting ever made. Etty
was particularly pleased with this work and rejected all
offers to purchase it, keeping it in his studio until his death.
[66]

By 7 June 1823, Etty felt that he had reached the limits of what

he could accomplish in Venice, and was considering returning

home.[65] Soon afterwards he left Venice for Florence, with the

intention of creating a full-size replica of Titian's Venus of

Urbino, considered one of the finest works of the Venetian

school of painting. Although the Uffizi management were

hostile to this proposal, after 10 days of negotiations they

allowed Etty to create his copy. His contemporaries considered

it among the finest copies ever made of a painting generally

considered to be impossible to copy.[67] In late July Etty began

the journey home, pausing for a further two months in Venice.

 On 8 October 1823 Etty left Venice, travelling

[67]

via Mantua and Geneva to Paris.[68]

Etty had intended to travel to England, but instead remained in

Paris, to resume copying works in Paris galleries, collecting

prints and buying a lay figure and around 200 paintbrushes,

both of which the French made to a higher standard than

English manufacturers.[69] In early January 1824, Etty returned

to London.[70]

Success and controversy (1824–1835)

[edit]

Incomplete first version

The finished Pandora
Etty abandoned the first of his 1824 Pandora paintings half-
complete, and exhibited the second.

As soon as he arrived home, Etty began to work on ensuring he

had at least one picture ready for the 1824 Summer Exhibition.

He decided to return to a theme for which he had created a

sketch in 1820, that of the story of Pandora and in particular the

passage in Hesiod in which the seasons crown her with a

wreath.[70] He had exhibited a sketch in 1820 on the same

theme,[71] and had already decided on the arrangement of the

figures.[70] His first attempt in 1824 was abandoned half-

finished, and he began again on a smaller canvas with different

positioning of the key figures of Pandora, Vulcan and Venus.

[70]

Pandora Crowned by the Seasons is an unusual composition,

painted to resemble a bas-relief in which the different elements

are emerging from a flat background.[70] The figure of Pandora

stands in the centre, with Vulcan to one side and Venus

and Cupid to the other, each leaning away from her; the figures

of Vulcan and Venus, along with the four figures representing

the seasons in the upper corners of the canvas, create a diamond

shape around Pandora.[70] The foot of Vulcan rests upon the

picture frame, a favourite device of Rubens;[72] elements of the

picture's composition are also taken from an 1817 engravingon

the same subject, drawn by Etty's fellow York artist John

Flaxman and engraved by William Blake.[70] As with all Etty's

history paintings from this time on, he worked by painting the

figures first, and only filling in the background once the figures

were complete.[73]

Although recognisably descended from earlier works such

as The Coral Finder, Pandorawas a far more accomplished

work than those Etty exhibited prior to his travels. Although

some critics were reluctant to accept Etty's combination of

realistic figures and an unrealistic setting (Etty's 1958

biographer Dennis Farr characterises the critical reaction

to Pandora as "grudging admiration not unmixed with

philistinism"[72]), his fellow artists were extremely impressed

with it,[72] to the extent that Thomas Lawrence bought the

painting at the 1824 Summer Exhibition.[71]

In the wake of the success of Pandora, Etty moved to an

apartment in Buckingham Street, near the Strand, where he was

to reside for the remainder of his working life.[72] Shortly

afterwards he applied to become an Associate of the Royal

Academy for the first time, and on 1 November was duly

elected, beating William Allan by 16 votes to seven.[74] (The

Times, at this time still hostile to Etty for his perceived

indecency, sneered that "this cannot be as an honour conferred

on Mr. Etty: if it were, he has deserved and should have

obtained it long ago". The same reviewer did concede that

Etty's copy of Tintoretto's Esther Before Ahaseurus was "the

most important picture in the room" in their report on an

exhibition held at the British Institution of significant copies of

paintings.[75])

Betsy Etty[edit]

William Etty, self-portrait, 1825. This was painted when

Etty was trying to advertise himself as a young and
successful artist, and bears little resemblance to his real
appearance.[76]

In the years following his return from Italy, Etty had a very

limited social life. In a typical day he woke at 7 am, painting

from around 9 or 10 am until 4 pm, after which he had a meal.

Following the meal he took a walk, and attended life classes

between 6 and 8 pm. On returning home he drank two cups of

tea, and went to bed at midnight.[77]

Etty was considered extremely unattractive, described by his

1855 biographer Alexander Gilchrist —a great admirer—as

"Slovenly in attire, short and awkward in body—large head,

large hands, large feet—a face marked with the small-pox,

made still more noticeable by length of jaw, and a quantity of

sandy hair, long and wild: all, conspired to make him 'one of

the oddest looking creatures' in a Young Lady's eyes—what she

would call 'a sight'; one, not redeemed (to her), by the massive

brow, its revelation of energy and power, the sign-manual of

Genius there legible."[78]

One of his few close companions was his niece Betsy

(Elizabeth Etty), fifth daughter of his brother John.[79] Betsy was

unmarried and 14 years younger than William, and became his

housekeeper in 1824.[80] She remained in his service for the rest

of his life,[81] and as he grew older William increasingly came to

depend on her,[80] suffering distress whenever they were apart

and regularly writing to her in panic whenever he did not hear

from her.[82] She became his companion and acted as his

assistant, alongside his official assistant George Franklin.[83]

Betsy (left), Charles (centre) and William (right), October

1844

While he appears to have been attracted to young women

throughout his life, and there is a strong suggestion in his

letters that in his early years he had a sexual encounter with one

of his models and possibly also a sexual encounter of some

kind while in Venice,[84] there is no suggestion that he ever had

a sexual relationship with Betsy of any kind.[83][P] He recorded in

his diary in 1830 that "it is best I have not married because I

have not noisy Children and can have nice Books, and Pictures

etc".[40] He suffered from extreme shyness throughout his life,

and when compelled to attend dinner parties would often sit

silent throughout, although he was popular with fellow artists

and students.[86] Etty rarely socialised, preferring to concentrate

on his painting; when on one occasion it was suggested that he

had little further need of training and need not continue

attending classes, he indignantly replied that "it fills up a

couple of hours in the evening, I should be at a loss how else to

employ".[87]

As she grew older Betsy suffered from numerous illnesses, the

exact natures of which are not recorded but which are known to

have caused William great concern.[82] William began to fear

that Betsy would marry and leave his service, in 1835 going as

far as to have her sign an affidavit that she would never leave

him.[88] In 1843 his older brother Charles, a successful planter

in Java, returned to England after over 30 years abroad.

 William became deeply suspicious that Betsy was becoming

[89]

too close to Charles, a suspicion intensified when Charles took

her on a visit to Holland and the Rhine;[90] Charles returned to

Java in 1845.[91] In around 1844 Betsy struck up a close

relationship with the pen manufacturer and art collector Joseph

Gillott,[92] one of William's regular customers who owned some

of his pictures.[89] Gillott was married with children, and the

closeness of their relationship caused William concern.[93] In

1848, William retired to York leaving Betsy alone in his

London apartment;[94] although aware that Betsy was

considering marriage he was confident that he could persuade

her to come to York and live with him in his retirement.[94]Betsy

did eventually join him in York, and was present at his death.[94]

The Combat[edit]
The Combat: Woman Pleading for the Vanquished, William
Etty (1825).

G. T. Doo engraving, 1848, based on a version completed

by Etty in 1845.
Main article:  The Combat: Woman Pleading for the

Vanquished

Spurred by the reception of Pandora, in 1825 Etty exhibited his

most ambitious work to date, The Combat: Woman Pleading

for the Vanquished. This was a huge canvas, 399 cm (13 ft 1 in)

across,[95] showing a woman pleading for the life of a defeated

soldier as another soldier prepares to kill him.[96] Highly

unusually for a history painting at the time, Etty did not

base The Combat on an incident from literature, religion or

history, but instead painted a scene entirely from his own

imagination, based on an idea which had first occurred to him

in 1821.[74][96] (He was later to describe this type of painting as

"that class of compositions called by the Romans Visions, not

having their origin in history or poetry".[97])

The Combat was extremely well received, even by critics who

had previously been hostile to Etty. In terms of composition

and technique it was considered as equalling or even surpassing

Titian and Veronese,[98] and one critic considered it "one of the

finest and most masterly works that ever graced the walls of the

Royal Academy",[99] while those critics who had previously

dismissed Etty for his supposed obscenity reconsidered their

opinions in light of it.[95][Q] The Combat continued to be one of

Etty's best-regarded works, and formed the basis of a successful

1848 engraving by George Thomas Doo.[102]

Following the success of The Combat, Etty painted a further

four very large paintings. One was on the well-worn theme of

the Judgement of Paris, exhibited in 1826, and three were on

the theme of Judith beheading Holofernes,[103] the first of which

was exhibited in 1827.[104][R] Unlike other artists who had

painted this subject, Etty's Judith paintings did not show the

actual beheading, as he hoped to avoid "the offensive and

revolting butchery, some have delighted and even revelled in".

 The first Judith picture in particular was extremely well

[103]

received critically.[106]

Royal Academician[edit]

The World Before the Flood (1828) was intended to

illustrate John Milton's Paradise Lost.[107]

In February 1828, shortly before his 41st birthday, Etty soundly

defeated John Constable by 18 votes to five to become a

full Royal Academician,[108] at the time the highest honour

available to an artist.[109][S] By this time, complaints about his

supposed indecency were beginning to resurface. All but one of

the 15 paintings Etty exhibited at the Royal Academy in the

1820s had included at least one nude figure, and Etty was
acquiring a reputation for using respectable themes as a pretext

for nudity.[110]

For the 1828 Summer Exhibition Etty exhibited three

pictures; The World Before the Flood, Venus, the Evening

Star and Guardian Cherubs. (The latter was a portrait of the

children of Welbore Ellis Agar, 2nd Earl of Normanton,[108] and

was the only non-nude painting exhibited by Etty at the RA in

the 1820s.[110]) Although similar to his earlier works, they were

technically more accomplished.[111] Both The World Before the

Flood and Venusattracted positive reviews in the press and

were sold during their exhibition for substantial sums,

 although the purchase by the Marquess of Stafford of The

[108]

World Before the Flood—a work containing scantily clad

figures of both sexes—drew a pointed comment in The

Gentleman's Magazine that it "will serve to accompany

the private Titians of that nobleman".[112] Despite the increasing

number of complaints in the press about his use of nudity,

respect for Etty from his fellow artists continued to rise, and in

1828 the British Institution awarded him £100 in recognition of

his talent.[111]

Male Nude, with Arms Up-Stretched (1828). Despite his

high status, Etty continued to study at the RA life classes.
Professor Jason Edwards of the University of York suggests
that this image may have been intended to be hung
horizontally with the model on his back,[113]but it is more
likely to be a study for a Descent from the Cross.[114] As of
2011, this painting was the York Art Gallery's best-selling
postcard.[115]

As soon as the 1828 Summer Exhibition was over, Etty stopped

work on other projects to concentrate on a diploma piece,

without which he could not become a Royal Academician. This

piece, Sleeping Nymph and Satyrs, was presented to the

Academy in October, and in December 1828 Etty became a

Royal Academician.[48][T]

It appears to me then that virtuous happiness being our lawful

aim in life, that having Academic Rank and Fame the next

thing to be considered (if God approve) is to seek that Decent

Competency which shall make my latter days comfortable and

happy, which I hope if it please Him, to be able to do by the

time I am fifty—by occasionally mixing with my historic

pictures a Portrait or two, and to vary and extend my sphere—a

classic Landscape or two so that if I can get about 100 a year I

may be enabled to retire to my dear native city and spend my

latter days in peace.

— William Etty, writing in around 1830–31.[117]

Life classes[edit]

Even after he had achieved status as a full Royal Academician,

Etty regularly attended life classes; fellow artist John Constable

sarcastically wrote that "Etty [sets] an excellent example to the

Modles [sic] for regularity".[87] His contemporaries considered

this at best peculiar and at worst extremely inappropriate,

complaining that for someone in his senior position to attend

classes as a student was both unprofessional and unnecessary,

and that it damaged the standing of the position of

Academician;[87] there were complaints that he had far outlasted

the official student term of 10 years.[45] Etty refused to give up

attendance, offering to resign rather than give up his studies,

and the Academy grudgingly allowed him to continue to attend

classes.[87] He divided his time between the RA's own life

classes and those at nearby St. Martin's Lane.[77]

Etty generally finished life studies during three evenings

sittings. On the first evening he would sketch the model in

charcoal or chalk, and then ink in the outline. On the second he

used oil paints to fill in the figures. On the third he layered

glaze and the final coverings of paint.[118] He usually painted

on millboard, re-using the reverse for fresh paintings.[119] His

female models were typically shop-girls, prostitutes, actresses

or poses plastiquesmodels,[120] while his male models tended to

be Life Guards recruited from the nearby barracks, who he

thought to have an appropriate muscular physique,[120] or

occasionally men Etty met in public bath houses.[85]

Hero and Leander[edit]

Etty thought Hero and Leander(1829) one of his best works.

In the wake of Etty's elevation to Academician, he exhibited

two paintings at the Summer Exhibition in 1829, Benaiah,

David's Chief Captain and Hero, Having Thrown Herself from

the Tower at the Sight of Leander Drowned, Dies on his Body.

Benaiah is on the same large scale as The Combat at 398 cm

[105]

(13 ft 1 in) wide, and is a very similar composition, although in

place of the woman begging for mercy is the body of a dead

soldier.[105] Hero recycles the pose of the dead soldier

from Benaiah as the dying Hero as she lies on the body of her

dead lover.[105] Unusually for Etty, Hero is painted in

intentionally neutral tones rather than his usual Venetian

colours,[121] and the composition uses foreshortening of the

bodies to create a single diagonal across the canvas.[122] For the

rest of his life, Etty considered Hero to be "the finest of my fine

pictures".[123]

Andromeda (c. 1830). Etty often added elements from

literature to his life studies to allow him to sell them as
history paintings.[124] The Lady Lever Art Gallery notes that
the later addition of chains to transform this nude study
into Andromeda "cannot be said to have had precisely the
effect intended".[U]

On 7 January 1830 Etty's mentor Thomas Lawrence died,

 followed on 30 July by Etty's mother.[87] Etty was devastated

[126]

by the loss, and was one of those considered to replace

Lawrence as President of the Royal Academy, although in the

event he did not stand for election.[126] Possibly distracted by the

death of Lawrence, Etty submitted only three paintings to the

Summer Exhibition that year.[127] One of these, Judith Going

Forth, was an addition to Judith, which had been

commissioned the previous year by that painting's new owners,

the Royal Scottish Academy.[105][127]

Candaules[edit]
Main article:  Candaules, King of Lydia, Shews his Wife by

Stealth to Gyges, One of his Ministers, as She Goes to Bed

Of Etty's two original works exhibited at the RA in 1830, The

Storm, inspired by Psalm 22,[128] attracted little interest and was

dismissed by The Gentleman's Magazine—typically a staunch

supporter of Etty's work—as "a sad failure".[127] The other

painting exhibited was Candaules, King of Lydia, Shews his

Wife by Stealth to Gyges, One of his Ministers, as She Goes to

Bed, which was to prove one of the most controversial works of

Etty's career. Candaules is based on a story from Herodotus in

which king Candaules arranges for his servant Gyges to spy on

his wife Nyssia undressing without her knowledge.[129] Gyges is

discovered and at Nyssia's behest kills Candaules, marries

Nyssia and rules the kingdom in his stead.[130] The painting

shows the moment at which Nyssia removes the last of her

clothes.[131] By positioning the figures in such a way that none

are looking out of the picture, and the viewer is directly behind

Nyssia, Etty aimed for the viewer to feel the same sense of

voyeurism and intrusion that Gyges would have felt, forced to

spy on his master's naked wife against his will and without her

knowledge.[132]

Candaules, King of Lydia, Shews his Wife by Stealth to

Gyges, One of his Ministers, as She Goes to Bed (1830)

Etty felt that the work illustrated the moral that women are not

chattels, and were entitled to punish men who violated their

rights.[133] He made little effort to explain this to his audience,

and thus Candaules appeared morally highly ambiguous,

inviting the viewer to sympathise either with the sexually

immoral Candaules, the murderous Nyssia or the voyeuristic

Gyges.[132] From the moment it was unveiled Candaules was

condemned as a cynical mix of a distasteful narrative and

pornographic images, and there was near-unanimous consensus

that it was inappropriate for public exhibition.[134] The piece

remained controversial long after Etty's death; Alexander

Gilchrist's overwhelmingly flattering 1855 biography of Etty

described it as "almost the only instance among Etty's works, of

an undeniably disagreeable, not to say objectionable subject",

 while as late as 2011 Sarah Burnage of the University of

[135]

York wrote of Candaules that "it is perhaps hard to see the

painting as anything but a deliberate attempt by the artist to

shock and scandalise".[132] Candaules was bought by wealthy

collector Robert Vernon, who was in the process of building a

major collection of British art and was to become one of Etty's

most important customers.[77]

With the three paintings for the 1830 Summer Exhibition

completed, Etty decided to pay another visit to Paris.[81] Etty

travelled via Brighton, arriving in Paris in early July 1830. He

found the atmosphere of the city had become unpleasantly

hedonistic, writing to Betsy that "If I had a daughter, she

should not be educated here. Pleasure and amusement are the

idols."[81]

France was in constitutional crisis in 1830, which reached a

peak in late July as the July Revolution began and riots erupted

across Paris. Although moved by the death and destruction

taking place around him, Etty felt that the purpose of his visit

was to study paintings, and continued to attend the Louvre to

copy paintings as the violence raged in the surrounding streets.

 On 31 July he decided to abandon the trip; abandoning his

[117]

proposed onward journey to Brussels and Antwerp, he

collected the five copies he had made in the Louvre and set off

for London.[117]
James Atkinson (1832). Surgeon James Atkinson was the
founder of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, of which
Etty was a member.[136] David Wilkie thought this one of the
best portraits in England.[137]

The works Etty painted following his return began to show a

departure in style from his previous efforts. While the figures in

his previous original paintings had been painted from sketches

of models made in the studio or life classes, from now on he

began to work from memory, and as a consequence his figures

began to appear more idealised; Farr (1958) describes his

figures from now on as "[conforming] less to a particular aspect

of the model than to a preconceived notion of what the model

ought to look like".[138]

Youth and Pleasure and The Destroying Angel[edit]

Main articles:  Youth on the Prow, and Pleasure at the

Helm  and The Destroying Angel and Daemons of Evil

Interrupting the Orgies of the Vicious and Intemperate

Youth on the Prow, and Pleasure at the Helm (1832)

In 1832 Etty returned to the theme of A Sketch from One of

Gray's Odes, exhibited in 1822 to such disdain from the press.

The result was Youth on the Prow, and Pleasure at the Helm,

which remains one of his best known works.[139] Illustrating a

passage from The Bard, a poem by Thomas Gray,[140]Youth and

Pleasure has been described as "a poetic romance".[141] It shows

a gilded boat being propelled by the breath of a nude child on

the sails; one nude figure representing Pleasure languidly holds

the helm of the boat. A nude child blows bubbles, which

another nude on the prow of the ship, representing Youth,

reaches to catch. Naiads, again nude, swim around and clamber

onto the boat.[140]

The Bard was about the English destruction of Welsh culture

and the subsequent decline of the House of Plantagenet and its

replacement by the Welsh House of Tudor, and there was a

general feeling among critics that Etty had misunderstood the

point of the metaphors used by Gray.[140] Etty claimed that his

unusual interpretation of the text was intended to create "a

general allegory of Human Life, its empty vain pleasures—if

not founded on the laws of Him who is the Rock of Ages",

 and that the painting served as a moral warning about the

[142]

pursuit of empty pleasure.[141] This explanation appears to have

left critics unconvinced. Even those critics most favourable

towards Etty's technical accomplishments in creating the

picture found it hard to ascertain what the painting was

supposed to represent;[140] other critics were more openly

hostile, with The Morning Chroniclecondemning it as

"indulgence of what we once hoped a classical, but which are

now convinced, is a lascivious mind".[143] Purchased for a huge

sum by Robert Vernon on its exhibition,[V] Youth and

Pleasure remained controversial long after Etty's death, with

Farr's 1958 biography describing it as "singularly inept".[139]

The Destroying Angel (1832)

Also exhibited at the 1832 Summer Exhibition along

with Youth and Pleasure was The Destroying Angel and

Daemons of Evil Interrupting the Orgies of the Vicious and

Intemperate, seen as a riposte by Etty to his critics.[148] Another

of what Etty deemed "visions", depicting a wholly imaginary

scene rather than one from literature, mythology or history,

 The Destroying Angel shows an imaginary classical

[97]

temple under attack from a destroying angel and a group

of daemons.[149][150]The human figures, intentionally painted in

paler tones than usual to suggest death,[151] each show their fear

in a different way.[149] Painted soon after his 1830 travels, it is

thought that the heaped corpses and terrified crowds were

directly inspired by events Etty had witnessed in Paris.[152]

Unlike Youth and Pleasure, the critical response to The

Destroying Angel was generally favourable even from those

critics usually hostile to Etty. The painting generated

favourable comparisons to Michelangelo and Rubens,[152] and

Etty's early supporter William Carey (writing under the name

of "Ridolfi") considered it to be evidence of Etty's "redeeming

grace and spirit".[153] The painting was explicitly seen as a

renunciation by Etty of his previous nude studies, with Fraser's

Magazine described it as "a sermon to [Etty's] admirers ...

where he inflicts poetical justice upon his own gay dames and

their gallants, their revels being broken in upon, and they

themselves being carried off most unceremoniously, like

that little gentleman Don Juan, by sundry grim-looking brawny

devils".[154]
Reredos of St Edmund, King and Martyr, painted by Etty in
1833. The London branch of the Etty family had links to the
church from the 1770s onwards.[155] Etty painted Christian
paintings throughout his career, in particular Penitent
Magdalenes.[156]

At around this time Etty began to receive many unsolicited

letters from wealthy Old Etonian lawyer Thomas Myers. Myers

was a huge admirer of Etty, and his letters mainly suggest

literary topics he felt Etty ought to be painting so as to appeal

to the nobility; he wrote regularly between July 1832 and May

1844. Although eccentric and largely incoherent (one of his

suggestions was for Etty to raise his profile by painting nude

portraits of the wives of the aristocracy), Etty appears to have

taken at least some of Myers's suggestions seriously.[157]

Illness and recovery[edit]

William Etty in his Studio, John Henry Mole, 1834

In mid-1833 Etty began a portrait of the daughters of Charles

Watkin Williams-Wynn, the long-

serving Conservative Member of Parliament

for Montgomeryshire, titled Preparing for a Fancy Dress Ball.

 Etty was then little-known for portraits, but had recently

[158]

completed Elizabeth Potts, a portrait of the daughter of a family

friend, which although poorly received by some critics was

technically highly accomplished.[5][W] He said at the time that he

hoped his portrait of the Williams-Wynn children would be

"one of my best".[160]

In February 1834, Etty became seriously ill, and was

incapacitated for four months.[161][X] Unable to paint, he

exhibited only two already-completed paintings in the 1834

Summer Exhibition, Elizabeth Potts and The Cardinal.[160]In

June of that year he left London to convalesce, renting a cottage

in York. Weak and unable to concentrate, Etty painted very

little, and spent the next few months visiting friends and

touring the sights of Yorkshire.[161] Gradually regaining his

health, he returned to London in December 1834, and resumed

work on those paintings he had left incomplete on the onset of

his illness.[161]

Preparing for a Fancy Dress Ball (1835)

Making up for lost time during illness, he completed several

significant works over the next few months, and exhibited eight

paintings at the 1835 Summer Exhibition.[160][Y]These included

works now considered among his most significant. The Bridge

of Sighs, Venice was based on sketches made by Etty during his

visit to that city in the early 1820s.[162] It shows the aftermath of

an execution, as two men haul the body away to be thrown into

the sea;[162]it was described as "poetry on canvas" by William

Macready, who bought it from Etty.[162] Preparing for a Fancy

Dress Ball was the portrait of the daughters of Charles Watkin

Williams-Wynn which Etty had begun in 1833. Etty had put far

more work into this than was usual for a portrait, remarking to
the Williams-Wynn family that he intended "to make a fine

work of Art as well as a resemblance".[163] Showing Williams-

Wynn's daughters Charlotte and Mary in elaborate Italian-style

costumes,[164] it was critically well received as evidence that

Etty was able to paint a major work that did not rely on nudity,

 as well as demonstrating that Etty could paint on

[164]

commission for the elite, leading to further commissions.

 The Warrior Arming was a study of Godfrey de Bouillon.

[165]

 painted to satisfy the then-current fad for medievalism.

[161]

 Etty had recently developed an interest in collecting pieces

[166]

of armour, and The Warrior Arming is a technically adept study

of the effects of lights from multiple sources shining on

polished armour.[166]

The most contentious of Etty's 1835 RA exhibits was Venus

and Her Satellites, a depiction of the Toilet of Venus.[167] This

was condemned in much of the press as pornographic,[167]and

was described as having a "total absence of soul",[168] with The

Observer in particular extremely hostile, calling for the

Archbishop of Canterbury to become involved in chastising

Etty for his lack of taste.[169] Despite this condemnation, Etty

considered Venus and her Satellites one of his best works, and

sold it to Rev. Edward Pryce Owen for the substantial sum of

300 guineas (about £31,000 in 2021 terms[28]) in August.[167]

Venus and her Satellites (1835)

We must, indeed, be more serious with this gentleman [Etty]

than is our wont, for the "Society for the Suppression of Vice"

are not to be excused for their prosecutions in cases of obscene

publications, and the Lord Mayor himself deserves at once to

be sent to the tread-mill for imprisoning a little Italian boy for

hawking about the streets a naked Cupid, if such lascivious

scenes, such gross insults to morality and decency, are allowed

to be exhibited at the Roy. Acad. with impunity. A Brothel on

fire, which had driven all the Paphian Nymphs out from their

beds into the court-yard, would be a modest exhibition

compared to this—for they would at least exhibit en chemise.

Several ladies, we know, were deterred from going into this

corner of the room to see Leslie's, Webster's, and other pictures

of great merit there, to avoid the offence and disgrace Mr. E.

has conferred on that quarter ... Really, really, if Mr. E., with all

his power of colour, turn his drawings of the human figure to

no honester purpose—if the absence of all taste and decency is

to mark his Academical studies, it is high time that he had a

hint from an authority which neither he nor the Council of the

Academy will dare to treat slightly. The Archbishop of

Canterbury and some of our Bishops are fond of the arts—what

say they to them in this shape?

— The Observer  on  Venus and Her Satellites, 10  May 1835.[169]

In August 1835 Etty spent a brief holiday in Shropshire, where

he delivered Venus and Her Satellites to Owen.[167] While en

route back he made a detour to Manchester to visit an art

exhibition; while there he made the acquaintance of wealthy

cotton merchant Daniel Grant.[170]

Etty and York[edit]

After Jonathan Martin's arson attack on York Minster in 1829

caused major damage, there were proposals by the dean and

chapter to take the opportunity of the destruction to restructure

the interior of the building.[87] Etty was prominent in the effort

to resist the redesign and to restore the building to its original

state.[171] A campaign led by Etty and other notable York

residents was successful, and the plans were eventually

defeated in February 1831.[117][Z]

 Monk Bar, York (1838)

Monk Bar in 2012

The successful campaign to preserve York's city walls
means that Monk Bar, as painted by Etty in 1838,[AA]remains
virtually unchanged.

By the time of the Minster fire, the Corporation of York (the

body responsible for local government) was already engaged in

a debate about the future of the city's defensive walls.[171]The

walls no longer served any practical purpose and were

expensive to maintain, and with the population of the city rising

rapidly the city was becoming cramped and dangerous.[174]The

city gates ("Bars") had become a public health hazard given the

number of locals using them as toilets, and theft of stone for

other building works had left parts of the walls dangerously

unstable. The Bars restricted stagecoaches, meaning York was

unable to capitalise on its strategic position halfway along the

lucrative London–Edinburgh route.[175] Faced with the need to

clear the city's slums, in 1800 the Corporation sought

permission from Parliament to demolish the Bars and much of

the walls. Owing to opposition from York Minster the scheme

was abandoned, but by 1826 the barbicans of four of the gates

had been demolished.[176] In the face of this a public campaign

to save the walls was launched in 1824, but attention on both

sides of the debate was diverted by the Minster fire.[176] In 1828

Etty had written to his mother expressing horror at the

demolition proposals, but distracted by the need to

complete Sleeping Nymph and Satyrs was unable to take any

action himself. By 1831 the Corporation had decided to

demolish the barbicans but to retain and restore the walls.[177]

Railway lines entering York station through the city walls,

1861. The cutting of an arch in the walls, and the noise and
smoke of trains so close to York Minster, distressed Etty.[176]

In February 1832 Etty began a campaign of writing to local

York newspapers urging the preservation of the walls, and

sending donations to various campaigns associated with their

retention.[178]Although some local newspapers were now

supporting preservation in light of the damage their demolition

would do to the tourist trade, many locals—whose lives were

made more difficult by living in a walled city with few points

of entry—remained hostile to the preservation campaigns.[179] A

proposal in 1838 by the York and North Midland Railway to

cut an archway through the walls to allow access to a railway

station within the walls galvanised Etty, and he delivered two

lectures on the preservation of the walls during visits to York in

1838–39,[180] and made four paintings of the Bars.[172][AA] Etty's

words went unheeded and the archway was duly cut in the

walls, much to his dismay, although the station was soon

moved to its current location outside the walls to allow through

the running of trains to both north and south.[180]While the walls

were eventually saved in 1889, many years after Etty's death,

Etty is sometimes credited with their salvation. It is open to

debate how significant his part was. Some authors feel that his

interventions had no impact and the preservation of the walls

was the result of decisions made by the Corporation and

lobbying by local newspapers, while others feel that the

Corporation would not have made these decisions had Etty and

other like-minded dignitaries not put pressure on them to do so.

[181]

In 1838, Etty started lobbying for the establishment of an art

school in York. He proposed that the Hospitium of St Mary's

Abbey be used for this purpose, with the lower floor becoming

a museum of sculpture and the upper floor becoming a school

and exhibition hall.[182] The Hospitium scheme was abandoned,

but the York School of Design duly opened on a different site

in 1842.[183] Although the school was created by an artist who

had built his reputation on nudes, nude art remained

controversial. In 1847, following a complaint from a female

student about a display of replicas of Ancient Greek sculptures,

"the master was requested to have the penis of each of the

offending statues cut off [...] a proceeding that called forth the

indignation of the male students and the remonstrances of even

the lady students".[184]

Later life (1836–1849)[edit]

 Early oil study

A Family of the Forest

Preliminary study and completed version of A Family of the
Forest (1836).

In 1836 architect John Harperarranged a small exhibition in

York of works by modern artists, which included 11 Etty

paintings.[185]This included the first public showing of Venus

and her Doves, which had been commissioned by Daniel Grant.

 Although the exhibition broke even it met with little public

[186]

interest, and no further Etty retrospectives were held for some

years.[186] Harper did take the opportunity to buy Etty's A

Family of the Forest (also known as Flowers of the Forest),

which had failed to sell at the 1836 Summer Exhibition.[186] A

Family of the Forest illustrates a passage from the Ancient

Greek poem Theogony, dealing with the Golden Age before

humanity suffered pain, misery or the need to work.[187] The

setting sun in the background and the man looking away from

the woman and child, and instead into the distance, signify his

knowledge that his days of ease are coming to an end.[95]

By this time, Etty was becoming conflicted religiously.

Although he had been raised as a Methodist,

 following Catholic emancipation in 1829 Etty became

[13]

increasingly drawn to Roman Catholicism.[188] Although he

considered himself "in [my] heart's core deeply and sincerely of

the Ancient Faith",[188] he refused formally to convert to

Catholicism owing to concerns that it would upset his family

and friends, worries that he would be denied access to Anglican

buildings such as York Minster, and a distaste for the concept

of auricular (spoken) confession.[189] He remained closely

associated with Catholicism throughout his later life, and was

one of the few non-Catholics to attend the 1838 opening

of Augustus Pugin's chapel for St Mary's College, Oscott, at the

time the most important Roman Catholic building in England.

[190]

The Sirens and Ulysses[edit]

Main article:  The Sirens and Ulysses

The Sirens and Ulysses (1837, restored 2010)

Also in 1836 Etty began work on The Sirens and Ulysses,

[191]
 which he considered among his greatest works, and which

is his largest surviving painting.[192]Measuring 442.5 cm by

297 cm (14 ft 6 in by 9 ft 9 in) Sirenswas based on a passage

from Homer's Odyssey in which sailors resist the irresistible

song of the Sirens.[193] The theme and scale of the painting were

probably suggested to Etty by Thomas Myers, who had been

encouraging Etty to paint very large canvases.[194] Myers's

suggested theme appealed to Etty, who later wrote that it

illustrated "the importance of resisting Sensual Delights".

 Etty made every effort to ensure realism in the picture, going

[27]

as far as to visit mortuaries to sketch corpses in varying stages

of decay to ensure the accuracy of the cadavers on the beach.

[192]

When Etty completed Sirens in 1837, it was one of the main

attractions at the 1837 Summer Exhibition, the first to be held

in the Royal Academy's new building in Trafalgar Square (now

part of the National Gallery).[191] The painting, with its

juxtaposition of male and female nudity and decaying corpses,

immediately divided opinion.[191] Some critics considered it one

of the finest artworks ever made, with The Gentleman's

Magazineparticularly taken with the work, describing Sirens as

"a historical work of the first class" and "by far the best that

Mr. Etty ever painted".[195] Other critics were less kind; The

Spectator considered it "a disgusting combination of

voluptuousness and loathsome putridity—glowing in colour

and wonderful in execution, but conceived in the worst possible

taste".[196]

William Etty at the Life Class, William Holman Hunt, 1840s

Possibly because of its size, The Sirens and Ulysses failed to

sell at the Summer Exhibition.[197]In October 1837 Etty met

again with Daniel Grant who, without having seen the painting,

offered £250 (about £23,000 in today's terms[28]) for Sirens and

for Samson and Delilah, also exhibited by Etty that year.

 Etty, poor at business and always reluctant to keep unsold

[198]

paintings in his studio, sold both paintings to Grant for well

below their true worth.[199][AB] Etty had used a strong glue as

a paint stabiliser which flaked when dry, and as soon as it was

complete Sirens began to deteriorate.[200] It was shown at the

1857 Art Treasures Exhibition but then considered in too poor

a condition for further public display, and placed in long-term

storage in the archives of the Royal Manchester Institution and

its successor, the Manchester Art Gallery.[192] In 2006

restoration began on it, and in May 2010 Sirens was returned to

public display and is now one of the key works in the

Manchester Art Gallery.[201]

Decline[edit]

The Wrestlers (c. 1840). Even as a highly acclaimed artist in

his 50s, Etty continued to attend life classes.

After Sirens, Etty's output remained as high as ever, with seven

paintings exhibited at the 1838 Summer Exhibition,[202] but the

quality of his work is generally considered to have gone into

decline.[203] By 1838 critics began to comment that Etty's

paintings were no longer inventive but simply reworkings of

his earlier paintings,[203]while in June of that year William

Makepeace Thackeray(under the pen name of Michael Angelo

Titmarsh) wrote that "[Etty] is, like great men, lazy, or

indifferent, perhaps, about public approbation".[204] By 1839,

criticisms of Etty were being raised in even those newspapers

and journals which had previously championed his work.[205] A

new type of criticism of Etty also began to appear in 1839,

from a new generation led by The Art Union, who praised

Etty's technical abilities but saw his choice of subjects as out of

touch and anachronistic,[205] and "very frequently doing as little

good for mankind as the priest who preaches his sermon in

Latin".[206]

Dead Pheasant and Fruit(c. 1839)

From around this time onwards, while Etty still held to his

belief that the purpose of art is to illustrate moral lessons, he

began to abandon the literary, religious and mythological

themes which had dominated his work.[207]He began to

paint still lifes, beginning with Pheasant and Peach (likely to

be the painting now called Dead Pheasant and Fruit); in the

1840s he exhibited six in total, and painted many more. Etty

was the first English painter to paint significant still lifes,

which at the time were thought by the English a primarily

Netherlandish form.[208] Also for the first time, he began to paint

a significant number of landscape paintings.[209] Etty still

continued to paint history paintings, but while he continued to

produce highly acclaimed reworkings of his previous pictures,

those works on fresh topics were generally poorly received.

  Etty's decline in quality can possibly be attributed in part to
[210]

London art dealers; from 1835 dealer Richard Colls had

become increasingly close to Etty, and by 1844 had a near-

monopoly on his work.[203] As the importance of the landed

gentry to the art market declined, the new purchasers of art

were industrialists; generally lacking in a classical education

and with little interest in Old Masters, they preferred to buy

works by then-contemporary artists such as Etty, and relied on

dealers to advise them.[211]

In May 1840, Etty made the trip

to Brussels and Antwerp which he had been forced by

revolution to abandon in 1830. He intended to study the works

of Rubens, but the briefness of his tour—in the company of

Betsy Etty he visited Ostend, Bruges, Antwerp,

Brussels, Aachen, Cologne, Bonn and Rotterdam in the course

of ten days—meant he had little time for study.[212] The

following year he returned to Antwerp and Mechelen for a

longer visit to visit St. Rumbold's Cathedral and to study the

substantial collections of Rubens paintings in the two cities.

 On this second journey he twice visited

[213]

a Trappist monastery outside Antwerp, staying overnight on

one visit, and bought a Trappist habit; he also bought

a Capuchin habit from a monastery in Bruges.[214] These

acquisitions prompted paintings on monastic themes over

subsequent years.[209]
Portrait of Mlle Rachel(c. 1841) Etty probably met the
celebrated French actress through William Macready.[209]

Despite a perceived decline in his work's quality, the 1840s

were the most financially successful of Etty's career. His

income increased with further opportunities for patronage from

a growing industrial class, and with few costs and all his earlier

debts cleared, Etty was in a position to invest money for the

first time. By 1841 Etty had around £300 invested, rising to

£8500 in 1845 and £17,000 in 1849.[AC]He continued to have

difficulty forming relationships with any woman other than

Betsy Etty, writing in his diary in 1843 that "being in sound

Mind and Body I declare it to be my Firm Intention NEVER

TO MARRY. In which resolution I pray GOD to help me that I

may devote myself purely to my Art, my Country, and my

GOD!"[40]

In May 1843, Etty was one of eight artists chosen by Prince

Albert to paint frescoes on the theme of Milton's Comus for a

new pavilion being built in the grounds of Buckingham Palace.

Etty was unhappy with his selection, as fresco was a medium

with which he had no experience, but reluctantly did so,

choosing to paint on the theme of Circe and the Sirens Three.

 The result was a disaster. Etty found himself unable to

[215]

retouch or alter his existing work, as any freshly applied paint

would flake away from the existing paint layer, and

the lunette shape of the panel left Etty with a large empty space

above the central figures.[215] Etty's fresco was deemed

unsalvageable, and although he offered to paint a replacement

on the theme of Hesperus he was rejected, and William

Dyce was commissioned to paint a replacement fresco. Etty

was paid only a token £40 fee.[216]

Givendale Church (1843). In the 1840s Etty began painting

landscapes for the first time.

The perceived lack of respect shown to one of England's

leading artists led to some outcry, and attacks in the press upon

the then very unpopular Albert;[216] William Makepeace

Thackeray wrote in 1845: "Think of the greatest patronage in

the world giving forty pounds for pictures worth four hundred

—condescending to buy works from humble men who could

not refuse, and paying for them below their value! Think of

august powers and principalities ordering the works of such a

great artist as Etty to be hacked out of the palace-wall! That

was a slap in the face to every artist in England."[217]

In August 1843, during a break from his work on the fresco,

Etty made what was to prove his final overseas journey. Since

1839 he had been planning a series of monumental paintings

of Joan of Arc,[210] and he wanted to visit places associated with

her.[89] Setting out on 16 August he spent two weeks touring

sites in Rouen, Paris and Orléans associated with her life.

 Unlike Etty's disastrous prior visits to France, this journey

[89]

passed without incident, and he found that he actually was

coming to enjoy certain aspects of French living.[89]

Musidora and Joan of Arc[edit]
Musidora: The Bather 'At the Doubtful Breeze
Alarmed'(1843, this version painted 1844, exhibited 1846)
was arguably Etty's last significant history painting.

In the same year, Etty painted the first version of Musidora:

The Bather 'At the Doubtful Breeze Alarmed', an illustration

from the poem Summer by James Thomson and arguably Etty's

last history painting painted while he still had all his powers.[218]
[AD]
 Musidora shows a scene in which the titular character,

having removed the last of her clothes, steps into "the lucid

coolness of the flood" to "bathe her fervent limbs in the

refreshing stream", unknowing that she is being watched by her

suitor Damon.[221] Etty's composition is shown from the

viewpoint of Damon; by so doing Etty aimed to induce the

same reactions in the viewer as Damon's dilemma as described

by Thomson; that of whether to enjoy the spectacle despite

knowing it to be inappropriate, or to follow the accepted

morality of the time and look away, in what art historian Sarah

Burnage has described as "a titillating moral test for spectators

to both enjoy and overcome".[220] Musidora met with almost

universal acclaim, compared favourably to Titian and

Rembrandt,[220][222] and described by The Critic as "a preeminent

work" and "the triumph of the British school".[220]

By the time Musidora was exhibited, Etty's health was in

serious decline.[218] Suffering severe asthma, it was not unusual

for passers-by to accuse him of drunkenness as he made his

way wheezing through the London streets,[77] and he was

beginning to plan his retirement from polluted London to his

beloved York.[190] Abandoning the smaller paintings which kept

him profitable, he strived to complete his Joan of Arc triptych

before his health gave out. This was on a huge scale, 28 ft

(8.5 m) in total width and 9 ft 9 in (3 m) high; the three pictures

from left to right depicted Joan devoting herself to the service

of God and her country, Joan scattering the enemies of France,

and Joan dying a martyr.[223][AE]

Etty sold the triptych for the huge sum of 2500 guineas (about

£240,000 in 2021 terms[28]) to dealer Richard Colls and the

engraver C. W. Wass.[224] Colls and Wass had ambitious plans

to recoup their money by selling engravings of the pictures and

by taking the paintings on a tour of Britain and Europe. The

paintings proved less popular than expected. Very few

engravings were sold and the tours did not take place; Wass

declared bankruptcy in 1852.[224] The paintings were separated,

and sold on to a series of buyers, with the third panel fetching

just 71⁄2 guineas in 1893 as Etty's popularity continued to wane.

 By the 1950s all three panels of Joan of Arc were believed

[225]

lost or destroyed,[226] although some preliminary studies survive.

 The first panel[227] which showed Joan of Arc finding the

[225]

sword in the church of St. Catherine de Fierbois ended up in the

collection of Llantarnam Abbey, Cwmbran, South Wales, U.K.

 The Second panel is in the collection of the Musée des

[228][229]

Beaux-Arts d'Orléans. The third panel has since been lost.

Center panel Joan of Arc makes a sortie from the gates of

 Orleans, and scatters the enemies of France, William Etty
(1843).

"Joan of Arc, after rendering the most signal services to her

Prince and people, is suffered to die a martyr in their
cause" 1849 engraving of the third panel from "The Penny
Illustrated News" 1 December 1849 Vol 1, Issue 6 .p.45"[230]
Retrospective and death[edit]

Fishponds, Givendale (1848)

Following the completion of Joan of Arc, Etty's health

continued to deteriorate. He continued to paint and exhibit, but

his retirement plans grew firmer. In April 1846 he bought a

house in Coney Street, central York, as a retirement home,

 and in December 1847 he formally resigned from the

[231]

Council of the Royal Academy.[232] Following structural

alterations to give him a better view of the river, Etty moved

into the house in June 1848, completing the move in

September, although he retained his London apartments.[231] His

move from London caused some consternation among that

city's models, who were losing one of their most regular

customers, as well as concerns from Etty who was worried that

working with nude models might cause a scandal in York.[233]

He continued to exhibit, sending seven paintings to that year's

Summer Exhibition, but they drew little interest, although the

lack of nudes was applauded by some reviewers.[231] By this

time, Robert Vernon's bequest of his collection to the nation

had led to eleven Etty paintings going on public display in the

cellars of the National Gallery.[231] In late 1848 he wrote a brief

autobiography, published the following year in The Art

Journal, in which he staunchly defended himself against the

accusations of pornography which had been levelled at him

throughout his life:

As a worshipper of beauty, whether it be seen in a weed, a

flower, or in that most interesting form to humanity, lovely

woman, in intense admiration of it and its Almighty Author, if

at any time I have forgotten the boundary line that I ought not

to have passed, and tended to voluptuousness, I implore His

pardon; I have never wished to seduce others from that path

and practice of virtue, which alone leads to happiness here and

hereafter; and if in any of my pictures an immoral sentiment

has been aimed at, I consent it should be burnt; but I never

recollect being actuated in painting my pictures by such

sentiment. That the female form, in its fulness, beauty of

colour, exquisite rotundity, may, by being portrayed in its

nudity, awake like nature in some degree an approach to

passion, I must allow, but where no immoral sentiment

is intended, I affirm that the simple undisguised naked figure is

innocent. "To the pure in heart all things are pure."[10]

Study for The Crochet Worker (1849). The final work (now
lost) was one of the last pieces completed by Etty and was
exhibited in his final Summer Exhibition. It shows his great-
niece Mary Ann Purdon.[234]

In 1849, the Royal Society of Arts decided to organise a

retrospective exhibition of Etty's work, the first since the minor

York exhibition of 1836. Etty agreed only on condition that all

nine of his large works were included. The three Joan of

Arc paintings were in London and easily accessible, and the

Royal Scottish Academy was happy to lend The

Combat, Benaiah and the Judith triptych, but the Royal

Manchester Institution was deeply reluctant to lend The Sirens

and Ulysses in light of concerns that transporting it would

damage the fragile paintwork further.[235] They were eventually

persuaded to lend the piece after Etty and some of his friends

visited Manchester to personally request they release it.[236] The

exhibition went ahead from 9 June to 25 August 1849, bringing

together 133 Etty paintings for the first time;[235] Etty hoped that

it would raise public awareness of his abilities, writing to his

friend Rev. Isaac Spencer "Please God, I will give them a taste

of my quality".[237] The exhibition was well received and well

attended; even Etty's old adversaries at the Morning

Chronicle recommending that readers "lose no time in visiting

this collection".[237] It was a financial disaster for the Royal

Society of Arts, faced with the cost of transporting large

numbers of delicate artworks from around the country.[235]

During the exhibition Etty suffered a serious bout of rheumatic

fever. Exhausted by illness and the stress of the exhibition,

when the exhibition was complete he returned to York in very

poor health. On 3 November 1849 he suffered a serious asthma

attack, thought to have been made worse by his neglecting to

wear his flannel undershirt the night before. His condition

deteriorated rapidly, and by 10 November he was bedridden.

On Tuesday 13 November, watching the sun set over the River

Ouse, he was heard to say "Wonderful! Wonderful! This

death!"[238] Later that night, Betsy Etty wrote to Joseph Gillott

that "Uncle paid the last debt to nature at 1⁄4 past Eight oclock

tonight. I do not know what to do. I am almost broken hearted.

I have lost my best friend. I now [sic] not what to do. I can say

no more."[94]

Legacy[edit]
Etty had planned for a burial in York Minster, but neglected to

cover the necessary costs in his will. With Yorkshire local

government in political and financial chaos in the wake of the

bankruptcy of George Hudson, there was no political will to

organise a public subscription or to waive the fees, and as a

consequence Etty was buried in the churchyard of St Olave's

Church, his local parish church.[238] On 6 May 1850 the contents

of his studio were auctioned, in a total of 1034 lots including

around 900 paintings;[238] some of these paintings were

incomplete studies later completed by other artists to increase

their value.[239] In the years following his death Etty's work

became highly collectable, his works fetching huge sums on

resale.[240] He continued to be regarded as a pornographer by

some, with Charles Robert Leslie observing in 1850 "It cannot

be doubted that the voluptuous treatment of his subjects, in

very many instances, recommended them more powerfully than

their admirable art; while we may fully believe that he himself,

thinking and meaning no evil, was not aware of the manner in

which his works were regarded by grosser minds".[241]

Six months after William's death, Betsy Etty married chemist

Stephen Binnington, a distant relation of the Etty family. She

moved into his house in Haymarket, and some time after his

death moved to 40 Edwardes Square, where she died in 1888 at

the age of 87.[242]

Cymon and Iphigenia, John Everett Millais (1848). Millais's

early works were strongly influenced by Etty. [243]

While Etty did have admirers, the patchy quality of his later

work meant that he never acquired the circle of imitators and

students that could have led to him being seen as the founder of

the English realist movement, now considered to have begun in

1848 with the formation of the Pre-Raphaelite

Brotherhood. William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais,

two of the three founders of the Pre-Raphaelites, were heavily

influenced by Etty's early works but recoiled from his later

style. Holman Hunt recollected that "in my youth [Etty] had

lost the robustness he once had [...] the paintings of his

advanced age cloyed the taste by their sweetness".[244] Millais

had consciously modelled his style on Etty, and his works prior

to the formation of the Pre-Raphaelites are very similar in

composition, but after 1848 the only similarity in style is the

use of colour.[244] As Pre-Raphaelitism waned Millais's style

became more varied, and some of his later work such as The

Knight Errant owes a strong debt to Etty's influence.[245]

Una Alarmed by Fauns, William Edward Frost (1843,
lithograph by Thomas Herbert Maguire 1847). Frost was
one of the few English painters to continue to work in Etty's
style in the decades following his death.

During his life Etty had acquired followers such as Irish

painters William Mulready and Daniel Maclise, but both

rejected Etty's preoccupation with nudes.[246] Mulready painted

nudes but became best known for domestic genre paintings,

 while Maclise chose to specialise in more traditional history

[247]

paintings and exhibited only one nude work in his career.

 One of the few painters who consciously attempted to

[246]

continue Etty's style after his death was William Edward Frost,

who had been an acquaintance of Etty's since 1825.[248] In the

early 1830s Frost painted on commission for Thomas Potts

(whose 1833 commission of Etty to paint his daughter

Elizabeth's portrait had been Etty's first significant portrait

commission), and later was commissioned on Etty's

recommendation to paint a portrait of Etty's cousin Thomas

Bodley.[248] Frost successfully imitated Etty throughout his

career, to the extent that his figure studies and Etty's are often

misattributed to each other.[249] Although Frost eventually

became a Royal Academician in 1870, by this time Etty's style

of painting had badly fallen out of fashion.[249]

Victorian painting had gone through radical changes, and by

the 1870s the realism of Etty and the Pre-Raphaelites had given

way to the ideas of the Aesthetic Movement, abandoning the

traditions of storytelling and moralising in favour of painting

works designed for aesthetic appeal rather than for their

narrative or subject.[250] Although the aesthetic movement

ultimately led to a brief revival of history painting, these works

were in a very different style to Etty's. The new generation of

history painters such as Edward Burne-Jones, Lawrence Alma-

Tadema and Frederic Leighton sought to depict passivity,

rather than the dynamism seen in previous works depicting the

classical world.[251] By the end of the 19th century, the value of

all of Etty's works had fallen below their original prices.[240] As

the 20th century began, the increasingly influential Modernist

movement, which came to dominate British art in the 20th

century, drew its inspiration from Paul Cézanne and had little

regard for 19th-century British painting.[252]

G. W. Milburn's 1911 statue of Etty, Exhibition Square,

York[253]

In 1911 the city of York belatedly recognised Etty. A statue of

Etty by G. W. Milburn was unveiled on 1 February outside

the York Art Gallery in Exhibition Square,[254] and a

retrospective of 164 Etty paintings was held at the gallery

despite opposition from some of Etty's descendants who

refused to lend works for it.[255] William Wallace Hargrove,

proprietor of the York Herald, gave a speech recalling his

memories of knowing Etty.[254] Outside York, Etty generally

remained little-known, with the majority of those galleries

holding his works, other than the Lady Lever Art Gallery,

the Russell-Cotes Museum and Anglesey Abbey, tending to

keep them in storage.[254][256][AF] Minor Etty exhibitions in

London in 1936 and 1938 had little impact,[258] and likewise an

exhibition of 30 Etty paintings in 1948 to mark the reopening

of the York Art Gallery and another York exhibition of 108

paintings the following year to mark the centenary of his death.

 In 2001–02 five Etty paintings were included in Tate

[259]

Britain's landmark Exposed: The Victorian Nude exhibition,

which did much to raise Etty's profile,[260][AG] and established

Etty as "the first British artist to paint the nude with both

seriousness and consistency".[141] The restoration of The Sirens

and Ulysses, completed in 2010, led to increased interest in

Etty,[201] and in 2011–12 a major exhibition of Etty's works was

held at the York Art Gallery.[262] The York Art Gallery

continues to hold the largest collection of Etty's works.[263]

Footnotes[edit]

1. ^ Excluding architect James Wyatt, who

was briefly elected to replace Benjamin
West in 1805 but whose election was
never formally approved, and who
resigned in favour of West in 1806.[8]
2. ^ Matthew Etty was particularly noted in
York for the quality of his gingerbread.[11]
3. ^ Robert Peck had recently married the
daughter of one of the Ettys'
neighbours.[13]
4. ^ The "lane near to Smithfield,
immortalised by Dr. Johnson's visit to
see 'The Ghost' there" was Cock Lane,
near the northern edge of the City of
London; the Cock Lane ghost was a
notorious hoax of 1762, which was
investigated by a committee
including Samuel Johnson. J. B. Gianelli
of 33 Cock Lane is listed as a Plaster of
 Paris manufacturer in contemporary
directories.[20]
5. ^ It is uncertain to what "the Torso of
Michelangelo" refers. Dennis Farr's
1958 biography of Etty speculates that it
was the Belvedere Torso, which served
as the model for some of
Michelangelo's figures in the Sistine
Chapel.[21]
6. ^ The attribution of The Missionary
Boy to Etty is unconfirmed, and it was
possibly painted c. 1820 by Etty's then
assistant George Franklin.[21] A damaged
inscription on the back reads "I well
remember [...] missionary boy at Hull
painted York by W. Etty R.A.".[21] No
record of a dark-skinned child preacher
appears in contemporary newspaper
reports, and the picture possibly depicts
a child convert educated by
missionaries.[23] The painting is signed
"W. Etty" in the lower left corner, but
the signature may not be authentic; no
other Etty painting is signed on the
front.[21]
7. ^ As is the case with almost all Etty's
paintings prior to 1819 other than
private portraits painted for friends and
family—and with every painting
exhibited by Etty at the Royal Academy
between 1811 and 1818—
neither Sappho nor Telemachus Rescues
Antiope has survived.[34]
8. ^ England's first art gallery was
the Dulwich Picture Gallery, opened to
the public in 1817. Royal Academy
students were permitted to visit the
collection from 1815 onwards.[38]Dulwich
 had no significant works of the Venetian
school which Etty so admired.[39]
9. ^ Little is known of Etty's 1815 visit to
France, other than that he arrived
in Calais on 3 January 1815. Tourist
travel to Continental Europe had
become practical for British citizens for
the first time in over a decade following
Napoleon's surrender on 1 May 1814;
Paris at this time was Europe's main
artistic centre as the artworks looted by
Napoleon's armies had yet to be
returned. The war resumed following
Napoleon's escape from Elba on
1 March 1815, and if Etty had not
returned before then he would have left
for England as soon as he heard the
news.[41]
10. ^ The woman's name is not recorded.
Etty had difficulties forming
relationships with women throughout
his life.[40]
11. ^ Very little is documented about
Franklin other than passing mentions in
Etty's correspondence. He is known to
have been a painter in his own right,
albeit an unsuccessful one, who
exhibited at least one painting at the
Royal Academy.[36] Etty is only known to
have had one formal pupil, James
Mathews Leigh in 1828–29.[48]
12. ^ A Sketch from One of Gray's Odes
(Youth on the Prow) was an early sketch
on a theme which a decade later
provided one of Etty's most significant
paintings, 1832's Youth on the Prow,
and Pleasure at the Helm.[47]
13. ^ By this time, all artworks looted during
 the wars of the past four decades had
been returned to their original owners,
leaving the Louvre with a drastically
diminished collection.[58]
14. ^ It is uncertain why Etty waited over 10
years before transforming his
preliminary sketches for The Bridge of
Sighs into a finished painting. Turner
had exhibited a highly acclaimed view of
Venice in 1833, and it is possible this
inspired Etty to demonstrate that he
could depict the same subject with
equal skill.[61]
15. ^ The Venetian Academy also named
Thomas Lawrence—then highly popular
in Italy following the installation of
his George IV at the Vatican[63]—as an
Honorary Academician, giving Etty the
diploma to deliver on his return to
England. Etty wrote to Lawrence that
"by electing you, they honored their
own body; by electing me, they
honored only myself".[65]
16. ^ Professor Jason Edwards of the
University of York, writing in 2011,
thinks it likely Etty was secretly
homosexual. It is certain that he often
met men in public bath-houses and
invite them to pose nude for him.[85]
17. ^ Despite the high regard in which it was
held, The Combat failed to sell at the
Summer Exhibition.[100] It was bought
from Etty by fellow artist John
Martin for 300 guineas (about £25,000
in 2021 terms[28]), following a promise
Martin had made to Etty before the
painting was complete.[101] At over 13
feet wide, the painting was too large for
 Martin's house, and he sold it to
the Royal Scottish Academy six years
later.[101]
18. ^ The other two Judith paintings were
commissioned in 1829 to form
a triptych with the original, by the Royal
Scottish Academy who had bought the
first painting in that year.[105]Etty
used bitumen to accentuate the
shadows in the Judith paintings, which
over the next century caused them to
deteriorate beyond repair.[103]
19. ^ In Etty's time, honours such as
knighthoods were only bestowed on
presidents of major institutions, not on
even the most well respected artists.[109]
20. ^ Upon election to the Royal Academy,
candidates were required to produce
a diploma work within a year, to
demonstrate their abilities and to leave
the RA with a permanent record of the
artist's distinctive style and
philosophies. While some artists
disliked the requirement to produce a
significant work for no material reward,
Etty took the task of illustrating his
ability and style extremely seriously,
and Sleeping Nymph and
Satyrscombines his distinctive attributes
of rich colours, pastiche of Poussin,
Reynolds and the Old Masters, and
nudes painted from life. The painting
was considered morally questionable,
and was never publicly exhibited in
Etty's lifetime. It remains in the
collection of the Royal Academy.[116]
21. ^ In full: "Etty's reputation suffered from
his preoccupation with the female
 nude, chiefly on account of paintings
such as this. It was probably painted as
a study from the model in the life class
at the Royal Academy. Etty's regular
attendance at the class, even when he
was a senior Academician, aroused
widespread comment, and his
subsequent addition of chains—in order
to elevate the figure into the classical
figure of Andromeda, who was left
chained to a rock as a victim for a
dragon—cannot be said to have had the
precise effect intended."[125]
22. ^ The price Vernon paid for Youth and
Pleasure is not recorded, although Etty's
cashbook records a partial payment of
£250 (about £23,000 in 2021 terms[28])
so it is likely to have been a substantial
sum.[144] Vernon's later moving of Youth
and Pleasure to make way for John
Constable's The Valley Farm prompted
the comment from Constable that "My
picture is to go into the place—where
Etty's "Bumboat" is at present—his
picture with its precious freight is to be
brought down nearer to the
nose."[141] Youth and Pleasure was
among the 11 Etty paintings presented
by Vernon to the National Gallery in
1847,[145] and in 1949 it was transferred
to the Tate Gallery,[146] where as of
2015 it remains.[147]
23. ^ Elizabeth Potts is listed in catalogues
from the time simply as A Portrait, as
the Potts family wished to preserve the
subject's anonymity.[159]
24. ^ It is not certain what illness Etty
suffered in 1834. He described his
 symptoms as "I feel scarce the strength
of a kitten. A severe cough, sore throat,
hoarseness, low fever, and soreness all
over".[161]
25. ^ The Bridge of Sighs, Phaedria and
Cymochles on the Idle Lake, Preparing
for a Fancy Dress Ball, Study from a
Young Lady: A York Beauty, Study of the
Head of a Youth, Venus and her
Satellites, The Warrior
Arming and Wood Nymphs Sleeping:
Satyr Bringing Flowers.[160]
26. ^ The plan was proposed by Robert
Smirke, and involved taking the
opportunity provided by the fire to
reposition the rood screen and move
the organ into the side aisles, making
the Great East Window (one of the
most important medieval stained
glass works) more visible from within
the building.[126]
27. ^ Jump up to:     The York Art Gallery dates
a b

Etty's Monk Bar, York to 1832.[160] Both

of Etty's recent biographers, Dennis Farr
in 1958 and Leonard Robinson in 2007,
date all four of Etty's paintings of the
York Bars to c. 1838.[172][173]
28. ^ Shortly after
buying Sirens and Samson Grant died
and left the paintings to his brother
William, who in turn donated them to
the Royal Manchester Institution in
1839.[192]
29. ^ In modern terms, Etty's savings
roughly equate to £27,000 in 1841,
£850,000 in 1845, and £1,800,000 at
the time of his death in November
1849.[28]
30. ^ Four versions of Musidora exist, all
identical in composition, although the
landscape background varies slightly.
[219]
 One of the paintings is of poorer
quality, and may be a later copy by a
student.[71] The best known version is
that now in Tate Britain, painted in
1844 and probably first exhibited at
the British Institution in 1846.[218][220]
31. ^ Etty's full titles for the
three Joan paintings were Joan of Arc,
on finding the sword she had dreamt of,
in the church of St. Catherine de
Fierbois, devotes herself and it to the
service of God and her country for the
left panel, Joan of Arc makes a sortie
from the gates of Orleans, and scatters
the enemies of France for the central
piece, and Joan of Arc, after rendering
the most signal services to her Prince
and people, is suffered to die a martyr
in their cause for the right panel.[223]
32. ^ Lord Leverhulme, Sir Merton Russell-
Cotes and Lord Fairhaven, founders of
the Lady Lever Art Gallery, the Russell-
Cotes Museum and the art collection of
Anglesey Abbey respectively, were
great admirers of Etty. Their collections
were acquired long after Etty had fallen
out of fashion, and they were
consequently able to buy several
significant Etty paintings at very low
prices.[256][257]
33. ^ The five paintings exhibited
were Youth and Pleasure, Britomart
Redeems Faire Amoret, Musidora, The
Wrestlers and Candaules.[134][261]
References[edit]
Notes[edit]

1. ^ Jump up to:  a b Warner 1996, p. 20.

2. ^ Jump up to:  a b Warner 1996, p. 44.

3. ^ Myrone 2011, p. 49.

4. ^ Warner 1996, p. 21.

5. ^ Jump up to:  a b c Burnage 2011e, p. 236.

6. ^ Burnage 2011e, p. 228.

7. ^ Burnage 2011e, p. 237.

8. ^ Sandby, William (1862).  The History of

the Royal Academy of Arts from its
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9. ^ Burnage 2011b, p. 107.

10. ^ Jump up to:             Etty, William (1 February

a b c d e f

1849). "Autobiography in Letters

Addressed to a Relative".  The Art
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40.
11. ^ Jump up to:         Farr 1958, p. 2.
a b c d

12. ^ Farr 1958, p. 3.

13. ^ Jump up to:           Farr 1958, p. 5.
a b c d e

14. ^ Farr 1958, p. 4.

15. ^ Jump up to:     Burnage & Bertram 2011,
a b

p. 20.
16. ^ Myrone 2011, p. 51.
17. ^ Jump up to:     Farr 1958, p. 6.
a b

18. ^ Gilchrist 1855a, p. 31.

19. ^ Farr 1958, p. 7.
20. ^ Jump up to:         Farr 1958, p. 8.
a b c d

21. ^ Jump up to:           Farr 1958, p. 9.

a b c d e

22. ^ Myrone 2011, p. 47.

23. ^ Farr 1958, pp. 8–9.
24. ^ Farr 1958, p. 10.
25. ^ Farr 1958, p. 12.
26. ^ Farr 1958, p. 13.
27. ^ Jump up to:     Farr 1958, p. 11.
a b

28. ^ Jump up to:                     UK Retail Price

a b c d e f g h i j

Index inflation figures are based on data

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31. ^ Green 2011, p. 61.

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35. ^ Farr 1958, p. 19.

36. ^ Jump up to:       Farr 1958, p. 32.
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38. ^ Green 2011, p. 65.
39. ^ Green 2011, p. 66.
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50. ^ Farr 1958, p. 28.
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52. ^ Farr 1958, p. 142.

53. ^ Farr 1958, p. 141.
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55. ^ Burnage 2011d, p. 31.

56. ^ "Lord Gwydyr".  The Times  (11466).
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69. ^ Farr 1958, p. 43.
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78. ^ Gilchrist 1855a, p. 136.

79. ^ Robinson 2007, p. 457.
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91. ^ Burnage & Bertram 2011, p. 27.
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145. ^ Robinson 2007, p. 388.

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Bertram 2011, p. 24.
161. ^ Jump up to:  a b c d e Farr 1958, p. 70.

162. ^ Jump up to:  a b c Farr 1958, p. 72.

163. ^ Gilchrist 1855a, pp. 360–61.

164. ^ Jump up to:  a b Burnage 2011e,

p. 239.
165. ^ Burnage 2011e, p. 229.

166. ^ Jump up to:  a b Farr 1958, p. 71.

167. ^ Jump up to:  a b c d Farr 1958, p. 73.

168. ^ "Fine Arts: Exhibition of the

Royal Academy, Somerset
House".  Leigh Hunt's London Journal.
London: H. Hooper (61): 167. 27 May
1835.
169. ^ Jump up to:  a b "Fine Arts: Royal
Academy".  The Observer. London: 3. 10
May 1835.
170. ^ Farr 1958, p. 74.

171. ^ Jump up to:  a b Robinson 2007,

p. 197.
172. ^ Jump up to:  a b Robinson 2007,
p. 204.
173. ^ Farr 1958, p. 179.

174. ^ Robinson 2007, p. 198.

175. ^ Robinson 2007, p. 199.

176. ^ Jump up to:  a b c Robinson 2007,

p. 200.
177. ^ Robinson 2007, p. 202.

178. ^ Robinson 2007, pp. 202–03.

179. ^ Robinson 2007, p. 203.

180. ^ Jump up to:  a b Robinson 2007,

p. 205.
181. ^ Robinson 2007, p. 206.

182. ^ Farr 1958, p. 84.

183. ^ Farr 1958, p. 85.

184. ^ Smith 1996, p. 19.

185. ^ Burnage 2011e, p. 241.

186. ^ Jump up to:  a b c Farr 1958, p. 76.

187. ^ Burnage 2011b, p. 136.

188. ^ Jump up to:  a b Farr 1958, p. 80.

189. ^ Farr 1958, pp. 80–81.

190. ^ Jump up to:  a b Farr 1958, p. 101.

191. ^ Jump up to:  a b c Farr 1958, p. 78.

192. ^ Jump up to:  a b c d "Etty's

masterpiece". Manchester Art Gallery.
Archived from  the original  on 11
February 2015. Retrieved  10
February  2015.
193. ^ "The tale of Ulysses".
Manchester Art Gallery. Archived
from  the original  on 11 February 2015.
Retrieved  10 February  2015.
194. ^ Robinson 2007, p. 189.

195. ^ "Fine Arts: Exhibition of the

Royal Academy".  The Gentleman's
Magazine. London: J. B. Nichols and
Son.  161: 628. June 1837.
196. ^ "Fine Arts: Exhibition of the
Royal Academy—Opening of the new
National Gallery".  The Spectator.
London: Joseph Clayton.  10  (462): 427.
6 May 1837.
197. ^ Robinson 2007, p. 229.

198. ^ Robinson 2007, p. 282.

199. ^ Farr 1958, p. 79.

200. ^ "Salvaged: The Project".

Manchester Art Gallery. Archived
from  the original  on 11 February 2015.
Retrieved  10 February  2015.
201. ^ Jump up to:  a b "Sirens' beauty
restored".  Manchester Evening News.
M.E.N. Media. 18 April 2010.
Retrieved  10 February  2015.
202. ^ Burnage & Bertram 2011,
p. 25.
203. ^ Jump up to:  a b c Farr 1958, p. 83.

204. ^ Titmarsh, Michael

Angelo  (June 1838). "Strictures on
Pictures".  Fraser's Magazine. London:
 James Fraser.  XVII  (102): 763.
205. ^ Jump up to:  a b Farr 1958, p. 86.

206. ^ "The Royal Academy: The

Seventy-first Exhibition".  The Art-Union.
London: William Thomas.  1  (4): 68. 15
May 1839.
207. ^ Farr 1958, pp. 86–87.

208. ^ Farr 1958, p. 87.

209. ^ Jump up to:  a b c Farr 1958, p. 92.

210. ^ Jump up to:  a b Farr 1958, p. 88.

211. ^ Farr 1958, p. 95.

212. ^ Farr 1958, p. 89.

213. ^ Burnage & Bertram 2011,

p. 26.
214. ^ Farr 1958, pp. 91–92.

215. ^ Jump up to:  a b Farr 1958, p. 96.

216. ^ Jump up to:  a b Farr 1958, p. 97.

217. ^ Thackeray, William

Makepeace  (1870). "Titmarsh Among
Pictures and Books".  Miscellanies.  V.
Boston, MA: Fields, Osgood, & Co.
p.  240.
218. ^ Jump up to:  a b c Farr 1958, p. 100.

219. ^ Farr 1958, pp. 100–01.

220. ^ Jump up to:  a b c d Burnage 2011b,

p. 149.
221. ^ Burnage 2011b, p. 148.

222. ^ "Exhibition of the Royal

Academy".  The Court Magazine and
Monthly Critic. London: William
Syme.  9  (14): 151. June 1843.
223. ^ Jump up to:  a b Farr 1958, p. 102.

224. ^ Jump up to:  a b Farr 1958, p. 103.

225. ^ Jump up to:  a b Farr 1958, pp. 134–

35.
226. ^ Farr 1958, p. 135.
227. ^ [Description of first panel
from British Museum website
catalog:"Title: Joan of Arc, On finding in
the church of St Catherine de Frébus
the sword she dreamt of, devotes
herself & it to the service of God & her
country. Description: Joan of Arc
kneeling in a church, next to a tomb
under a trefoil arch inscribed 'Valiant et
Contstant' with a helmet beside it,
holding a sword in her right hand,
raising her left arm to heaven; after
Etty. 1851" at [1].A study by Eddy for
the "Joan of Arc" painting can be found
online at Artworks Website U.K.]
228. ^ James Hamilton's "A Strange
Business: Art, Culture, and Commerce in
Nineteenth Century London" 2015
229. ^ A [copyrighted picture of the
left handed panal can be found on page
317 of William Etty: The Life and Art By
Leonard Robinson 2007]
230. ^ Another version of a C.W.
Wass engraving can be found on the
Library of Congress website
231. ^ Jump up to:  a b c d Farr 1958, p. 106.

232. ^ Farr 1958, p. 105.

233. ^ Farr 1958, pp. 106–07.

234. ^ Burnage 2011e, p. 243.

235. ^ Jump up to:  a b c Farr 1958, p. 107.

236. ^ Robinson 2007, p. 408.

237. ^ Jump up to:  a b Burnage & Hallett

2011, p. 12.
238. ^ Jump up to:  a b c Farr 1958, p. 108.

239. ^ Burnage 2011c, p. 222.

240. ^ Jump up to:  a b Robinson 2007,

p. 440.
 241. ^ Leslie, Charles Robert (30
March 1850). "Lecture on the Works of
the late W. Etty, Esq, R.A., by Professor
Leslie".  The Athenæum. London (1170):
352.
242. ^ Robinson 2007, p. 476.

243. ^ Smith 1996, p. 90.

244. ^ Jump up to:  a b Farr 1958, p. 109.

245. ^ Smith 1996, p. 149.

246. ^ Jump up to:  a b Robinson 2007,

p. 431.
247. ^ Robinson 2007, p. 432.

248. ^ Jump up to:  a b Robinson 2007,

p. 433.
249. ^ Jump up to:  a b Robinson 2007,
p. 435.
250. ^ Warner 1996, p. 26.

251. ^ Warner 1996, p. 35.

252. ^ Warner 1996, p. 11.

253. ^ Historic England.  "Statue of

William Etty   (Grade II)
(1257854)".  National Heritage List for
England. Retrieved  3 April  2017.
254. ^ Jump up to:  a b c Robinson 2007,
p. 445.
255. ^ Robinson 2007, p. 444.

256. ^ Jump up to:  a b Smith 2001b, p. 53.

257. ^ Robinson 2007, pp. 447–48.

258. ^ Robinson 2007, pp. 448–49.

259. ^ Robinson 2007, p. 451.

260. ^ Robinson 2007, p. 453.

261. ^ Smith 2001a, pp. 56–61.

262. ^ Turner 2011a, p. 9.

263. ^ Turner 2011a, p. 10.

Bibliography[edit]

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Turner, Laura (eds.).  William Etty: Art &

Controversy. London: Philip Wilson Publishers.

pp. 154–97. ISBN 978-0-85667-701-4.  OCLC 80

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 Burnage, Sarah (2011d). "Painting the Nude

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Etty's 'Autobiography' (1849) and 'Male Nude

with Arms Up-Stretched' (c.  1830)". In Burnage,

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External links[edit]
 Media related to William Etty at Wikimedia Commons

 323 artworks by or after William Etty at the Art

UK site

 An engraving by Edward Francis Finden of the

painting   Guardian Angels. with the

poem The Angel's Call, by Felicia Hemans, for

The Amulet annual for 1829.

show
William Etty