REYAHN KING picks her object of the week from York's museums' collection. This week the focus is on the work of William Etty

YORK artist William Etty RA (1787-1849) was one of the most celebrated and controversial painters of the late-Georgian period.

York Art Gallery holds the largest collection of Etty’s works and ephemera in the world. This work in oil on canvas depicts Venus and Cupid and was painted in 1830.

Born at 20 Feasegate, York, on March 10, 1787, Etty made his first drawings on the floor of his parents’ bakery shop. As a boy he “would stand entranced and sketch” from the prints displayed in the windows of Todd’s bookshop at 35 Stonegate.

Having been schooled in and around York, Etty became a student at the Royal Academy of Arts in London at the age of 20. Within six months, he was happily apprenticed to the then president and prominent society portraitist, Sir Thomas Lawrence, who later described his pupil as “a child of the Royal Academy”.

This epithet reflects Etty’s longstanding allegiance to the institution. He became a Royal Academician in 1828, the highest honour for a British artist at the time.

Etty’s fondness for the Academy was perhaps most diligently expressed through his attendance at its evening life-classes over the course of four decades.

He found drawing from the life model provided a continuous source of inspiration and enjoyment. This devotion fundamentally shaped his approach to painting and he is today best known for his enduring artistic preoccupation with the nude.

This vibrant, small canvas depicts one of Etty’s favourite themes: Venus, the classical goddess of love. She features in at least 15 of Etty’s exhibited works. In this intimate scene, Venus is depicted semi-nude, a gauzy cloth with gold decoration draped over her lower half, tenderly cradling her winged child, Cupid. While his mother’s face is turned away from the spectator, Cupid meets our gaze, his arms wrapped protectively around her neck.

Etty would have used his life-class studies, like Female Nude, when creating Venus and Cupid. The studies he produced were not intended for public display. Instead they were “painted in privacy for my information and improvement”. When producing a nude, Etty always followed the same routine: on the first night, he would draw and outline the figure in charcoal; on the second, carefully paint it in with oils; and on the third, mix up the tints, add a scumble (a thinly applied paint layer) and glaze in the shadows. Etty’s usual method of constructing a figure involved stitching together sections of different models, “painting a bit from one, a good point from another”, after which he would graft the form into its setting, which did however sometimes lead to a sense of disjointedness.

When Venus and Cupid was first exhibited at the British Institution in 1830, critics commended the artist for his idealised, “chaste” presentation of Venus. The work was described as one of “those exquisite small pictures, by this great master, whose powers in colour and drawing raise him above all his compeers”.

Small-scale, appealing canvases such as these attracted purchasers who appreciated Etty’s mastery of colour and flesh painting.

However, Etty’s Venus-themed images were not always well-received. Venus and her Satellites, for instance, was pronounced “a Brothel on fire”, which deterred ladies from going near “to avoid the offence and disgrace Mr. E. has conferred on this quarter”. Etty himself argued that the “simple, undisguised, naked figure is innocent”.

While primarily based in London, Etty often visited his hometown – “Dear Old Ebor” – as many of his family and friends remained in York. He was a passionate promoter and protector of the city’s antiquities and heritage sites, declaring: “they are what give you distinction and pre-eminence above all other cities. You have lost much, take care of what remains ...”. Determined to save York’s cultural past “from the barbarous project” which had been set in motion to modernise the centre, the artist wrote numerous letters to newspapers and raised subscriptions.

When the Minster was ravaged by serious fires in 1829 and 1840, Etty aided the efforts to generate restoration funds. He also campaigned to preserve the city’s four medieval gateways such as Monk Bar, which he painted in the 1830s.

With an eye to the future, Etty presented a paper to the Yorkshire Philosophical Society in 1838, who had opened the Yorkshire Museum in 1830, on ‘The Importance of Arts to Design’ to support the establishment of a School of Drawing and Design in York. The Government School of Design duly opened in 1842.

Etty died in his Coney Street house in November 1849 and has since himself become part of York’s rich heritage through his statue in Exhibition Square outside York Art Gallery.

Reyahn King is the chief executive officer of York Museums Trust