WILLIAM ETTY. 
89 
suspense was over, and he knew the worst, then he quickly 
made up his mind to his fate, and devoted himself once more 
to his beloved Art, and after a time was even able to write of 
his troubles in quaintly humorous fashion to his friend Bodley, 
“ I have been so often and unprofitably in love, I have serious 
thoughts of paying my addresses to my Tea-Kettle. I have 
found her a very warm friend. She sings, too. And you 
know how fond I am of music. I have heard a thousand tunes 
more unpleasant than hers. On a winter’s night, after a well- 
spent day, with a volume of old poetry, Shakspere, Milton, 
Spenser,—a volume of Dr. Johnson, or a new Scottish novel, 
when the wind is blowing, and pattering the rain against one’s 
window, then, sweet is the song of the Kettle ; sweeter to a 
studious man, than a crying child or scolding wife. However, 
I must consider seriously before I offer her my hand, lest she 
should burn it.” Etty was almost as much addicted to tea¬ 
drinking as Dr. Johnson, and invariably carried tea with him 
on his travels. 
His stay in Venice lasted more than a year, during the 
whole of which time he worked unceasingly, studying at the 
Academy, copying from pictures in the Gallery, and in the 
intervals seeing the sights of Venice. He astonished the 
Italians by the rapidity of his execution, and by his fine copies 
of the great masters, they declared that he painted with the 
fury of a devil, and the sweetness of an angel. He literally 
gloried in the gorgeous colouring of Titian, Tintoretto, and 
Veronese, and never rested till he had completed the number 
of copies he originally designed to make, thirty studies in oil 
after the Venetian School, and twenty in oil of Academic 
figures. Of the thirty copies, thirteen were from Veronese, 
nine from Tintoretto, three from Titian, two from Bonifazio. 
To Etty in after years they were invaluable, and he never 
forgot that he owed them to the generous liberality of his 
brother Walter, who, anxious for the painter’s improvement, 
continued to supply him with funds. His next ambition was 
to secure a copy of Titian’s Venus, at Florence, which after 
much difficulty he was able to accomplish, of the size of the 
original. He sent it to England by sea, insuring it for £1 00. 
In later life he used to insure it for £200 and £300. From 
