[2][3] While painters such as J. M. W. Turner (a strong supporter of the Royal Academy) were beginning to move away from the influence of the Old Masters to create uniquely British styles, they adhered to principles established by Reynolds.

[20] Applicants to the Royal Academy Schools were expected to pass stringent ability tests, and on his arrival in London Etty set about practising,[20] drawing "from prints and from nature".

[10] Aware that all successful applicants were expected to produce high quality drawings of classical sculptures, he spent much time "in a plaster-cast shop, kept by Gianelli, in that lane near to Smithfield, immortalised by Dr. Johnson's visit to see 'The Ghost' there",[D] which he described as "My first academy".

[41][I] The 28-year-old Etty had fallen in love,[J] and fretted about the difficulties a potential marriage would cause, and whether it would be right to travel to further his career even though it would mean taking his new wife to a foreign country.

[42] Travelling through the Simplon Pass to Piedmont revived his spirits somewhat; he found the variety of colour in the landscapes of northern Italy fascinating, and in late September arrived in Florence.

[42] Despite the grandeur of Florence, Etty was severely depressed, writing to his brother on 5 October that "I feel so lonely, it is impossible for me to be happy" and complaining of "the vermin in the bed, the dirt and the filth" which he considered "such as no Englishman can have any idea of, who has not witnessed it".

[52] Sir Francis Freeling had admired The Coral Finder at its exhibition, and on learning that it had already 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[28]).

[36] Now in his mid 30s, he felt that for his work to progress beyond mere competence he needed a chance to study those European masters whose styles he most admired, despite his unpleasant experiences the last time he left England.

[57] Recalling his homesickness and loneliness the last time he had ventured abroad, for his next foreign trip Etty travelled in the company of Richard Evans, who had been a fellow student of Thomas Lawrence.

[63] Etty had long considered Venice his spiritual home and "the hope and idol of my professional life", and had often wondered why, given its artistic importance, so few English travellers visited the city.

[77] Etty was considered extremely unattractive, described by his 1855 biographer Alexander Gilchrist—a great admirer—as "Slovenly in attire, short and awkward in body—large head, large hands, large feet—a face marked with the small-pox, made still more noticeable by length of jaw, and a quantity of sandy hair, long and wild: all, conspired to make him 'one of the oddest looking creatures' in a Young Lady's eyes—what she would call 'a sight'; one, not redeemed (to her), by the massive brow, its revelation of energy and power, the sign-manual of Genius there legible.

[48][T] It appears to me then that virtuous happiness being our lawful aim in life, that having Academic Rank and Fame the next thing to be considered (if God approve) is to seek that Decent Competency which shall make my latter days comfortable and happy, which I hope if it please Him, to be able to do by the time I am fifty—by occasionally mixing with my historic pictures a Portrait or two, and to vary and extend my sphere—a classic Landscape or two so that if I can get about 100 a year I may be enabled to retire to my dear native city and spend my latter days in peace.Even after he had achieved status as a full Royal Academician, Etty regularly attended life classes; fellow artist John Constable sarcastically wrote that "Etty [sets] an excellent example to the Modles [sic] for regularity".

[105] Unusually for Etty, Hero is painted in intentionally neutral tones rather than his usual Venetian colours,[121] and the composition uses foreshortening of the bodies to create a single diagonal across the canvas.

[143] Purchased for a huge sum by Robert Vernon on its exhibition,[V] Youth and Pleasure remained controversial long after Etty's death, with Farr's 1958 biography describing it as "singularly inept".

[157] In mid-1833 Etty began a portrait of the daughters of Charles Watkin Williams-Wynn, the long-serving Conservative Member of Parliament for Montgomeryshire, titled Preparing for a Fancy Dress Ball.

[167] This was condemned in much of the press as pornographic,[167] and was described as having a "total absence of soul",[168] with The Observer in particular extremely hostile, calling for the Archbishop of Canterbury to become involved in chastising Etty for his lack of taste.

[167] We must, indeed, be more serious with this gentleman [Etty] than is our wont, for the "Society for the Suppression of Vice" are not to be excused for their prosecutions in cases of obscene publications, and the Lord Mayor himself deserves at once to be sent to the tread-mill for imprisoning a little Italian boy for hawking about the streets a naked Cupid, if such lascivious scenes, such gross insults to morality and decency, are allowed to be exhibited at the Roy.

Several ladies, we know, were deterred from going into this corner of the room to see Leslie's, Webster's, and other pictures of great merit there, to avoid the offence and disgrace Mr. E. has conferred on that quarter ... Really, really, if Mr. E., with all his power of colour, turn his drawings of the human figure to no honester purpose—if the absence of all taste and decency is to mark his Academical studies, it is high time that he had a hint from an authority which neither he nor the Council of the Academy will dare to treat slightly.

[170] After Jonathan Martin's arson attack on York Minster in 1829 caused major damage, there were proposals by the dean and chapter to take the opportunity of the destruction to restructure the interior of the building.

[174] The city gates ("Bars") had become a public health hazard given the number of locals using them as toilets, and theft of stone for other building works had left parts of the walls dangerously unstable.

[186] A Family of the Forest illustrates a passage from the Ancient Greek poem Theogony, dealing with the Golden Age before humanity suffered pain, misery or the need to work.

[188] Although he considered himself "in [my] heart's core deeply and sincerely of the Ancient Faith",[188] he refused formally to convert to Catholicism owing to concerns that it would upset his family and friends, worries that he would be denied access to Anglican buildings such as York Minster, and a distaste for the concept of auricular (spoken) confession.

[189] He remained closely associated with Catholicism throughout his later life, and was one of the few non-Catholics to attend the 1838 opening of Augustus Pugin's chapel for St Mary's College, Oscott, at the time the most important Roman Catholic building in England.

[206] From around this time onwards, while Etty still held to his belief that the purpose of art is to illustrate moral lessons, he began to abandon the literary, religious and mythological themes which had dominated his work.

[AC] He continued to have difficulty forming relationships with any woman other than Betsy Etty, writing in his diary in 1843 that "being in sound Mind and Body I declare it to be my Firm Intention NEVER TO MARRY.

[216] The perceived lack of respect shown to one of England's leading artists led to some outcry, and attacks in the press upon the then very unpopular Albert;[216] William Makepeace Thackeray wrote in 1845: "Think of the greatest patronage in the world giving forty pounds for pictures worth four hundred—condescending to buy works from humble men who could not refuse, and paying for them below their value!

[218][AD] Musidora shows a scene in which the titular character, having removed the last of her clothes, steps into "the lucid coolness of the flood" to "bathe her fervent limbs in the refreshing stream", unknowing that she is being watched by her suitor Damon.

[230] In late 1848 he wrote a brief autobiography, published the following year in The Art Journal, in which he staunchly defended himself against the accusations of pornography which had been levelled at him throughout his life: As a worshipper of beauty, whether it be seen in a weed, a flower, or in that most interesting form to humanity, lovely woman, in intense admiration of it and its Almighty Author, if at any time I have forgotten the boundary line that I ought not to have passed, and tended to voluptuousness, I implore His pardon; I have never wished to seduce others from that path and practice of virtue, which alone leads to happiness here and hereafter; and if in any of my pictures an immoral sentiment has been aimed at, I consent it should be burnt; but I never recollect being actuated in painting my pictures by such sentiment.

That the female form, in its fulness, beauty of colour, exquisite rotundity, may, by being portrayed in its nudity, awake like nature in some degree an approach to passion, I must allow, but where no immoral sentiment is intended, I affirm that the simple undisguised naked figure is innocent.

[241] While Etty did have admirers, the patchy quality of his later work meant that he never acquired the circle of imitators and students that could have led to him being seen as the founder of the English realist movement, now considered to have begun in 1848 with the formation of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.