William Etty

William Etty (1787–1849) was an English painter known for historical and mythological scenes, often featuring nude figures. His work brought the study of the nude into British history painting.

The Sirens and Ulysses: An 1837 painting by William Etty depicting the Sirens luring Odysseus’s crew to their deaths. Its monumental nude figures made Etty’s treatment of the classical nude especially conspicuous.
Thomas Lawrence: An English portrait painter who became president of the Royal Academy in 1820. Lawrence supported Etty’s candidacy for Royal Academy membership.
History painting: A genre that depicts religious, historical, literary, or mythological narratives, often on a grand scale. Etty worked in Britain’s highest-ranked academic genre, where the nude served narrative and moral aims.
Victorian morality: A set of social ideals in nineteenth-century Britain emphasizing propriety, restraint, and sexual respectability. Etty’s nude paintings became flashpoints in debates about public decency.
The Combat: Woman Pleading for the Vanquished: A history painting by William Etty showing a woman pleading with a victor to spare a defeated warrior. It exemplifies Etty’s use of the nude within a dramatic moral narrative.
John Opie: A British portrait and history painter who taught at the Royal Academy Schools. Etty studied under Opie after moving to London to pursue painting.
Life drawing: The practice of drawing the human figure from a live model. Etty’s repeated study of models underpinned the anatomy and poses in his paintings.
The nude in art: The depiction of unclothed human bodies as an artistic subject, distinct from ordinary nakedness. Etty’s work made the distinction between classical art and indecent display a public controversy.
The Destroying Angel and Daemons of Evil Interrupting the Orgies of the Vicious and Intemperate: A large 1832 painting by William Etty depicting a supernatural assault on revelers. Its crowded, turbulent composition shows Etty extending the nude figure into a moral spectacle.
Sir Joshua Reynolds: An English portrait painter and the first president of the Royal Academy. Reynolds’s advocacy of history painting formed part of the academic tradition Etty pursued.