Works by William Etty
24 works · 98 ms
William Etty, a York baker's son trained at the Royal Academy Schools, painted history scenes with nude figures and kept attending life classes long after he became an Academician.
In the 1820s nearly every painting he showed at the Academy had a nude in it, and he gained a name for indecency. The Combat of 1825, almost four metres wide, came from his imagination, not a story: a woman on the ground grips a victor whose sword is raised over a beaten man. In Candaules, from 1830, the king's wife undresses with her back to us; Etty put us right behind her, meaning us to share the hidden Gyges' sense of intrusion.
A life study generally took him three evenings: an outline in chalk or charcoal, inked; oil on the second night; glazes on the third. He usually painted them on millboard, and his male models were often Life Guards from the nearby barracks. Male Nude, with Arms Up-Stretched, on cardboard from 1828, sets a seated man against a red curtain, his raised wrists looped in red cord.
Sources: Wikipedia, National Galleries Scotland, York Art Gallery, National Gallery.
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