William Etty
Artist
William Etty (1787-1849) c.1830. Many of Etty’s nudes were Life Guards recruited from barracks. #maleform
William Etty was an English artist best known for his history paintings containing 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 t…
- Born: Mar 10, 1787 · York, United Kingdom
- Died: Nov 13, 1849 · York, United Kingdom
- Education: Royal Academy of Arts
Timeline
1818: 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.
1822: 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, drew criticism of Etty for his treatment of female nudes.
1829: Possibly alarmed by the criticism, Freeling persuaded Etty to 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.
1829: 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.
1833: In mid-1833 Etty began a portrait of the daughters of Charles Watkin Williams-Wynn, the long-serving Conservative Member of Parliament for Montgomeryshire, shown Preparing for a Fancy Dress Ball .
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ICYMI In Case You Missed It
