WILLIAM ETTY. 
85 
his full powers were, Collins, Jackson (Lastingham) Haydon, 
Hilton, Wilkie, Mulready, Leslie, Constable, Bailey, and 
others, some of whom were already exhibiting. Before 
Etty had had any opportunity of proving his capacities he had 
thought to paint landscape ; he explained “ the sky was so 
beautiful, and the effects of light and cloud,” and then in a few 
simple words he unfolds his great purpose. “ When I found 
that all the great painters of Antiquity had become thus great 
through painting great actions, and the human form, I 
resolved to do nothing else. And finding God’s most glorious 
work to be Woman, that all human beauty had been concen¬ 
trated in her, I resolved to dedicate myself to painting—not 
the draper’s or milliner’s work, but God’s most glorious work, 
more finely than ever had been done.” In order fully to 
appreciate Etty’s achievements we must re-call to our minds 
the condition of art at the beginning of the nineteenth century. 
There were few worthy successors of Hogarth, Reynolds, 
Gainsborough, and Romney. Cosway, Flaxman, Fuseli, 
Stothard, Srnirke, and Turner stood out from the rest, but 
there w r as nothing in their style akin to Etty’s genius ; 
Lawrence, the portrait painter, was the only living artist with 
whom he was at all in sympathy in the early days of his 
studentship, and, through the liberality of his uncle, Lawrence 
agreed to take the youth as his pupil for one year, on pre¬ 
payment of a hundred guineas. Etty was allowed to copy 
pictures in Lawrence’s studio, and ask his master’s advice 
when he was at liberty to attend to him. As a matter of fact 
the vacant moments were so few that the student had to 
struggle on almost unaided, and after a time well-nigh in 
despair, but his indomitable perseverance enabled him to 
achieve his purpose, and at length he could copy not only 
Lawrence, but the old masters with comparative ease, though 
this improved power in handling was his only gain in the 
year’s labour. He caught something of Lawrence’s 
mannerisms, but these disappeared as his own natural powers 
developed. He then resumed his former studies at the 
British Gallery from the Old Masters, from nature—heads in 
the day, the figure in the evening—never failing at his post in 
the Academy Life-School. He occasionally made copies for 
