William ETTY (York, 1787 – 1849)

Private collection, France.

Born in York in 1787, William Etty became particularly well known for his nude figures and his history paintings, which served as a pretext for depicting the naked body. With the exception of Turner, no other artist divided British opinion quite so much in the first half of the 19th century. Praised by critics and enjoying great commercial success, he was nevertheless advised to make his art more modest. An admirer of the great Venetian masters of the 16th century and the Flemish artists of the 17th, it is from them that he drew his vivid and brilliant colour palette. More than the palette, it is the Venuses and Danaes of the ancients that the painter evokes here. Etty sets this near-total nudity against a backdrop of brilliantly red drapery and vividly brushed landscapes, a setting for this figure whose dreamy pose and the brilliance of the red on her cheeks and fabrics enhance the sensuality of the whole. This delightful composition echoes another of his works, *Venus and Love*, held at the York Art Gallery (Fig. 1. Inv. YORAG: 77).