Bacchante

1805–1807

The road to the Academy: Opie and Fuseli

To prepare for the entrance tests Etty drew from prints and from nature in Gianelli’s plaster-cast shop near Smithfield, which he called his first academy. The Member of Parliament Richard Sharp gave him a letter of introduction to the painter John Opie; impressed by a drawing from a cast of Cupid and Psyche, Opie recommended him to Henry Fuseli, who admitted him to the Royal Academy Schools as a probationer.

15 gennaio 1807 · Formazione

Royal Academy of Arts

1811

First accepted works: “Telemachus” and “Sappho”

After many failed attempts, two of Etty’s paintings were accepted in 1811: “Telemachus Rescues Antiope” at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and “Sappho” at the British Institution, where it sold for 25 guineas. From then on at least one of his works was accepted each year, though for the next few years this brought little commercial success or public interest.

1816

Rejected in love, he sets out for the Continent

Having had little success, Etty decided to spend a year in Italy studying the great collections, since England had no public galleries with permanent collections. The 28-year-old was in love and fretted over what marriage would mean for the journey, but the woman rejected him, and in early September 1816 he left for the Continent and landed at Dieppe; before that he had been abroad only briefly, in France in early 1815.

1817

First favourable press review

His two paintings at the 1817 Summer Exhibition, “Bacchanalians: a Sketch” and “Cupid and Euphrosyne”, drew a favourable review from William Paulet Carey in the Literary Gazette, who found the first a fine classical invention and the second full of promise. Carey was later proud to have been the first critic to recognise Etty’s potential and championed him throughout his career; Etty appears to have developed as a painter during his travels.

13 novembre 1849

Died