The Triumph of Cleopatra
An intentionally cramped and crowded composition, it shows a huge group of people in various states of undress, gathering on the bank to watch the ship's arrival; another large number is on board.
Buoyed by its reception, Etty devoted much of the next decade to creating further history paintings containing nude figures, becoming renowned for his combination of nudity and moral messages.
[8] After a year spent studying under the renowned portrait painter Thomas Lawrence,[9] Etty returned to the Royal Academy, drawing in the life class and copying other paintings.
[11][A] Etty was becoming widely respected at the Royal Academy for his painting, particularly his use of colour and his ability to produce realistic flesh tones,[13] and from 1811 onwards had at least one work accepted for the Summer Exhibition each year.
[15] Strongly inspired by Titian, The Coral Finder depicts Venus Victrix lying nude in a golden boat, surrounded by scantily-clad attendants.
[17] Sir Francis Freeling admired The Coral Finder at its exhibition, and learning that it had been sold he commissioned Etty to paint a similar picture on a more ambitious scale, for a fee of 200 guineas (about £21,200 in 2025 terms[16]).
Her ladies and gentlewomen also, the fairest of them were apparelled like the nymphs Nereides (which are the mermaids of the waters) and like the Graces, some steering the helm, others tending the tackle and ropes of the barge, out of which there came a wonderful passing sweet savour of perfumes, that perfumed the wharf's side, pestered with innumerable multitudes of people.While superficially similar to The Coral Finder, Cleopatra is more closely related to the style of Jean-Baptiste Regnault, with its deliberately cramped and crowded composition.
")[21] The scene includes a number of images based on drawings Etty had sketched while out and about in London, such as the mother holding up her baby to see the view and the crowd on the roof of a temple in the background.
[22] From the earliest days of his career Etty had been interested in depicting variations in skin colour, and The Missionary Boy, believed to be his oldest significant surviving painting, shows a dark-skinned child.
[33][E] In so doing Etty became the first English artist to treat nude studies as a serious art form in their own right, capable of being aesthetically attractive and of delivering moral messages.
[38] In February 1828 Etty soundly defeated John Constable by eighteen votes to five to become a full Royal Academician,[34] at the time the highest honour available to an artist.
[43] Changing tastes from the 1870s onwards meant history paintings in Etty's style fell rapidly out of fashion,[44] and by the end of the 19th century, the value of all of his works had fallen below their original prices.
[18] In 1911 it was bought for 240 guineas (about £32,000 in 2025 terms[16]) by William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, who was a great admirer of Etty and had a number of his paintings hanging in the entrance hall of his home.
