Single figure paintings on millboard of this type are usually the products of William Etty’s work in the Life Room of the Royal Academy Schools, where he painted for two hours every evening for nearly forty years. His sale in 1850 contained nearly eight hundred such products of his industry and enthusiasm: as Anderdon wrote: This was a wonderful sale to see- Christies 2 Rooms encumbered by Millboards and Sketches of canvas each displaying forms of man and womankind- heaps. John Constable was said to have remarked on one such figure study, smacking his lips, you might eat it and William Holman Hunt left a vivid account of Etty painting in the Royal Academy Schools: He painted on a sized but unprimed mill-board; he made the outline hastily with charcoal, dusted this out slightly, then took out his prepared palette and fastened it with a screw to the left hand upper end of his board. His colours were set in order from white through reds, browns, blues and greens to black. He began using them rubbing in the darks with umber and rich browns, and then painted on the general lights in masses with accentuated prominence of pure white, tempering this gradually from patches of blanched reds and lakes kept in squares of different strengths on his prepared palette. At this stage, he made the half tints by leaving the ground more or less to show through the scumblings. After each touch his weighty head overbalanced itself to right and left, while he drew himself back for a more distant glance. At every fresh sally he recommenced by enlarging the sweep of his brush on the palette. The next evening he began to clear away the excess of dried and undried paint with cuttle-fish, and encircled away again with colours differing only by the inclusion of yellows and the more delicate lakes.... He was intoxicated with the delight of painting, and when, after a careful reloading of his brush, he drove the tool upwards in frequent bouts before his half closed eyes, I don't think that, had he been asked suddenly, he could have told his name.(1) Etty was the seventh son of a York baker and confectioner. Despite early evidence of talent, his family circumstances meant that he had to be apprenticed to a Hull printer for seven years. When he completed his articles in 1805, he worked as a journeyman for only three weeks and went straight away to London where he became a student at the Royal Academy Schools in the following year. He exhibited at the Royal Academy and the British Institution for the first time in 1811, subsequently showing regularly at both these exhibitions. By 1820, he was successful, with numerous commissions and employing an assistant. He was elected Associate of the Royal Academy in 1824, in 1825 exhibited his first huge history painting, The Combat (National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh) and in 1828 became a full Academician, beating John Constable in the vote. His fellow Academicians tried to dissuade him from continuing to paint in the life room, but he calmly ignored their protests, once offering to resign rather than comply. Foreign travel was crucial to his career, expanding his knowledge of art in the direction of style and subject matter. When the end of the Napoleonic wars made tourism possible again he visited France, once in 1815 and again in 1816. On this occasion he went on to Florence and in Paris studied under Jean-Baptiste Regnault. His acquaintance with the French art world is demonstrated by his links with Delacroix, who visited him on his own journey to England in 1825. A further visit to Paris followed in 1830. His most extensive foreign tour took place between June 1822 and January 1824. He travelled as far as Naples and spent nine months in Venice. On this tour he made over 50 copies of old master paintings, concentrating on Titian and Rubens, renewing his acquaintance with the latter artist’s works in brief trips to Holland and Belgium in 1840 and 1841. Etty’s love for these two painters provided a vital inspiration for his work.
London, Christie's (number 451 FV), 16 March 1934 Lot 173 Pierre Jeannerat from 1934
London, The Arts Council of Great Britain, 1947, English Romantic Art, number 58 Madrid and Lisbon, The British Council, 1949, Cien Anos de Pintura Britanica 1730-1830, number 16 London, The Arts Council of Great Britain, 1955, An Exhibition of Paintings by William Etty, (catalogue of the exhibition by Dennis Farr), number 39 (in the supplement to the catalogue)