Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 18.djvu/52

Etty years' regular study, that he succeeded in getting any of his pictures exhibited. In this year, however, his ‘Sappho’ was accepted at the British Institution, and his ‘Telemachus rescues the Princess Antiope from the fury of the Wild Boar’ at the Royal Academy. Some nine years later he was looked upon by his companions ‘as a worthy plodding person, with no chance of ever becoming a good painter.’

In 1816, with the help of his brother, he set out for Italy, but did not get further than Florence, for he was love-sick, home-sick, and in ill-health, but the short visit seems to have been of some advantage to his art, for his pictures of 1817 and 1818 attracted some attention, and in 1820 he achieved a real success by ‘Pandora’ at the British Institution and ‘The Coral Finders’ at the Royal Academy. This success was followed up the next year by a ‘Cleopatra,’ which made a great impression. ‘He awoke famous,’ says Leslie, but he did not relax his efforts. In 1822 he paid his second visit to Italy. He went to Florence, to Rome (where he met Canova, Eastlake, and Gibson), to other places, but half of his time during an absence of eighteen months was spent in Venice. It was a time of continuous study. ‘He paints,’ said the Venetians, ‘with the fury of a devil and the sweetness of an angel.’ He returned to London in January 1824, and the night afterwards ‘saw him at his post on the Academic bench.’ Indeed, life was one of such perpetual work that, except the death of his father in 1818 and his occasional attacks of love, which were all on his side only, there is little to record in his personal life during these years.

Though poor and in debt till late in life, his brother Walter relieved him of all pecuniary anxiety. In 1831 he still owed this brother 804l., and it was not till 1841 that he was able to turn the balance in his favour. The mutual affection and trust of the two brothers were perfect. The artist never looked in vain for the necessary remittance, and spent every farthing towards the object for which it was lent—the perfection of his skill. Etty left England an accomplished student, he returned the perfected master. His picture of 1824, another version of ‘Pandora,’ was purchased by Sir Thomas Lawrence, and in October he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy.

In 1825 he completed ‘The Combat; Woman pleading for the Vanquished,’ his first very large picture. It was 10 ft. 4 in. by 13 ft. 3 in., and was purchased by John Martin, the painter, for 300l. In 1827 he exhibited a still larger picture, his first of the ‘Judith’ series, all three of which were purchased by the Scottish Academy, and are now in the National Gallery of Scotland, and in February 1828 he was elected to the full honours of the Academy.

After his return from Venice in 1824 Etty changed his lodgings from 16 Stangate Walk, Lambeth, to 14 Buckingham Street, Strand. Here his mother came with a granddaughter on a visit to set his house going for him, but the young girl stayed and kept his house till his death. Now, though his position was secure, his days were spent in painting, and, till almost the end of his life, he attended the life school of the Academy like a student every night. For many years after he was an academician he could not command large sums for his pictures. His price for a full-length portrait in 1835 was but 60l., and it was only by strenuous industry, rigid economy, and the painting of numberless small pictures for dealers and others, that he was able to pay off his long arrears and lay by provision for his old age. Moreover, he would not raise his prices to those dealers who befriended him when he was poor, and a great part of his time was spent in painting nine large heroic compositions, designed with a high moral and patriotic aim. ‘In all my works,’ he wrote, ‘I have endeavoured to exercise a moral influence on the public mind.’ ‘In the “Battle” [‘The Combat’] I have striven to depict the beauty of mercy; in “Judith” patriotism and self-sacrifice to one's country, one's people, and one's God; in “Benaiah, David's Lieutenant,” courage; in “Ulysses and the Sirens” resistance to passion, or a Homeric paraphrase on the text “The wages of sin is death;” in “Joan of Arc” religion, loyalty, and patriotism.’ For all these works, except the ‘Joan of Arc’ series, he received but small sums. The Scottish Academy paid him 500l. for the three ‘Judiths,’ 200l. more than he received for ‘The Combat.’ He received 475l. for a large picture of ‘The Choice of Paris,’ painted for the Earl of Darnley, but the payments were spread over several years. One of his largest and finest pictures, ‘Ulysses and the Sirens’ (now in the Royal Institution, Manchester), and another of ‘Delilah,’ were sold for 250l. the two.

In 1830 he went to Paris for the fifth time, and went on ‘painting in the Louvre when grapeshot were pouring on the populace by the Pont Neuf and musketry rattling everywhere.’ The death of his mother in 1829; the return of his brother Charles from Java in 1843, after an absence of thirty-one years; his efforts against ‘the destructive demon of modern improvement,’ which was laying hands on his beloved York Cathedral