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One of the most successful British artists of the early nineteenth century, Etty's work has been neglected until recently. This first major study of Etty's work in over fifty years reassesses his use of the nude, his training at the Royal Academy and his large scale historical canvases and proposes a new framework within which his art can be understood. Featuring a series of scholarly essays written by leading experts in the period, the catalogue will interrogate the casting of Etty as a figure of controversy in British art and re-examine his important and energetic contribution to artistic practise in the nineteenth century.
About the Author
Sarah Burnage is research curator at York Art Gallery for the forthcoming William Etty: Art and Controversy exhibition. Before joining York Art Gallery Sarah was a Henry Moore Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of York. She completed her PhD on the late eighteenth-century sculptor John Bacon RA in June 2008 and is currently in the process of preparing her thesis for publication. She has written a number of articles on sculptural practise in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Mark Hallett is Head of the History of Art Department at the University of York. He has published widely on eighteenth-century and early nineteenth-century British art, and is the author of 'The Spectacle of Difference: Graphic Satire in the Age of Hogarth' (1999) and 'Hogarth' (2000). He was the co-curator of the 'Tate Britain exhibition Hogarth' (2007) and is currently leading a team of scholars and curators working on a three-year research project entitled 'Court, Country, City: British Art 1660-1735'. Laura Turner is curator of Art at York Art Gallery, with a special interest in Victorian and early twentieth-century British Art. Between 2005-2008 Laura worked as Assistant Keeper of Art (Collections) at the Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, where she helped to compile the Ferens catalogue, From Victorian to Edwardian. At York, she has curated exhibitions on Stanley Spencer and the St Ives School, and currently oversees the Gallery's exhibition programme and Fine Art collections.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This nicely produced, quite heavyweight, book on the early 19th century painter William Etty has been published to accompany the exhibition at the York Art Gallery running from June 2011 to January 2012. The book is copiously illustrated with full colour reproductions of Etty's work and the work of those painters who influenced him.
The book starts with a good introduction by Dr Sarah Burnage, curator of the exhibition, and Prof. Mark Hallett, Head of the History of Art at the University of York. An excellent chronology of the life of Etty is provided and then the book follows the now familiar style of providing a series of essays, five in this case, before getting to the full annotated catalogue of the exhibition. This is a pity because, in this example as in many other catalogues, the essays are of uneven quality, only two being really helpful. The pieces by Myrone on Etty being `too academical', that by Turner about his painting `The Wrestlers' and the piece by Edwards on the suggestion that Etty may have been homosexual are somewhat laboured and obscure and might have been adequately dealt with in a few sentences. The piece by Burnage which deals with the contemporary criticism Etty was subjected to in his lifetime as a result of a preponderance of nude subjects in his work, and the essay by Green on the influence on Etty of the Old Masters are both lucid and informative. Again the full catalogue of some ninety nine works which follows contains excellent notes by Burnage.
Overall then, this book could, with improvement, have been made less weighty. William Etty was an interesting person about whom quite a lot is known and the book provides a good insight into his work and life and to the often fatuous and silly attacks by the art critics of the time. Without doubt this is the best publication on William Etty that is generally available and will be the key work on this artist for some time to come.
The book starts with a good introduction by Dr Sarah Burnage, curator of the exhibition, and Prof. Mark Hallett, Head of the History of Art at the University of York. An excellent chronology of the life of Etty is provided and then the book follows the now familiar style of providing a series of essays, five in this case, before getting to the full annotated catalogue of the exhibition. This is a pity because, in this example as in many other catalogues, the essays are of uneven quality, only two being really helpful. The pieces by Myrone on Etty being `too academical', that by Turner about his painting `The Wrestlers' and the piece by Edwards on the suggestion that Etty may have been homosexual are somewhat laboured and obscure and might have been adequately dealt with in a few sentences. The piece by Burnage which deals with the contemporary criticism Etty was subjected to in his lifetime as a result of a preponderance of nude subjects in his work, and the essay by Green on the influence on Etty of the Old Masters are both lucid and informative. Again the full catalogue of some ninety nine works which follows contains excellent notes by Burnage.
Overall then, this book could, with improvement, have been made less weighty. William Etty was an interesting person about whom quite a lot is known and the book provides a good insight into his work and life and to the often fatuous and silly attacks by the art critics of the time. Without doubt this is the best publication on William Etty that is generally available and will be the key work on this artist for some time to come.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Before Amazon drew this book to my attention via its usual tenuous linkages with my browsing history, I had never heard of William Etty, despite my modest interest in 19th century art. The magic phrase "scholarly essays" in the publisher's description and the word "controversy" in the book's title suggested an interesting read. But it was not what I bargained for.
Simply leafing through the pages is sufficient to reveal that Etty was a very busy 19th century pornographer -- hence the controversy. it's not just his preoccupationof with the nude; images of bondage and depravity creep in alongside depictions of orgiastic rape and cruelty. All the evidence suggests that Etty was an homosexual, and the authors underline their view, firstly by reproducing a variety of male nudes, most with their backs turned to the viewer, secondly by noting that he attended the Royal Academy's all-male life classes daily until virtually his death, and thirdly by devoting an entire chapter to a single graphic painting of male bondage. This is not so much a chapter about art as about homoeroticism and masculine homosexuality in general, the author describing Etty's "aesthetic" as a "sodomitic one". Not surprisingly, perhaps, we are told that the postcard of this painting is the biggest selling item in the York museum's retail shop. This chapter alone will presumably make a similar contribution to the sales of this book.
Doctor Brandon in his review above describes Etty as "an interesting person" - in spades, you might say. Notwithstanding the many public attacks on his character, he was elected to full membership of the Royal Academy and throughout his life stoutly defended himself against charges of lewdness in his work. Well, he would, wouldn't he... Interspersed with the naked men and women are a few decent landscapes, some good portraits, and a very engaging but totally fanciful self portrait. The art is of mixed quality. Whilst Etty's daily attendance at the Academy Life School obviously served him well, he seems less accomplished in other departments. His painting of Cleopatra's arrival in Cilicia is a joke, with the Brobdingnagian Cleopatra sitting atop a tiny galley, the oars of which are shorter than her arms. If it is deliberate distortion, the purpose escapes me. The book is well produced, but some of the illustrations have an inadequate tonal range, and would have benefited by the employment of Photoshop's shadow lightening tool.
I found the book's relentless preoccupation with the artist's sexuality entirely disagreeable, but I cannot deny that many will consider it appropriate. It is just not the kind of read I look for when buying books on art history.
Simply leafing through the pages is sufficient to reveal that Etty was a very busy 19th century pornographer -- hence the controversy. it's not just his preoccupationof with the nude; images of bondage and depravity creep in alongside depictions of orgiastic rape and cruelty. All the evidence suggests that Etty was an homosexual, and the authors underline their view, firstly by reproducing a variety of male nudes, most with their backs turned to the viewer, secondly by noting that he attended the Royal Academy's all-male life classes daily until virtually his death, and thirdly by devoting an entire chapter to a single graphic painting of male bondage. This is not so much a chapter about art as about homoeroticism and masculine homosexuality in general, the author describing Etty's "aesthetic" as a "sodomitic one". Not surprisingly, perhaps, we are told that the postcard of this painting is the biggest selling item in the York museum's retail shop. This chapter alone will presumably make a similar contribution to the sales of this book.
Doctor Brandon in his review above describes Etty as "an interesting person" - in spades, you might say. Notwithstanding the many public attacks on his character, he was elected to full membership of the Royal Academy and throughout his life stoutly defended himself against charges of lewdness in his work. Well, he would, wouldn't he... Interspersed with the naked men and women are a few decent landscapes, some good portraits, and a very engaging but totally fanciful self portrait. The art is of mixed quality. Whilst Etty's daily attendance at the Academy Life School obviously served him well, he seems less accomplished in other departments. His painting of Cleopatra's arrival in Cilicia is a joke, with the Brobdingnagian Cleopatra sitting atop a tiny galley, the oars of which are shorter than her arms. If it is deliberate distortion, the purpose escapes me. The book is well produced, but some of the illustrations have an inadequate tonal range, and would have benefited by the employment of Photoshop's shadow lightening tool.
I found the book's relentless preoccupation with the artist's sexuality entirely disagreeable, but I cannot deny that many will consider it appropriate. It is just not the kind of read I look for when buying books on art history.
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