But his run into Italy, and still more a short stay among the painters of Paris, did him good service. He saw a new style of art, and new methods of execution, and had a fresh range of subjects suggested to his miud. It was not however till some three or four more years had passed away that he began to catch the eye, of the artistic world. In 1820 he eays, "I sent a small picture to the British Gallery, highly finished and carefully wrought; it made a con siderable noise. I sent a larger the same year to the Royal Academy; it made a still greater noise." This last was the 'Coral Finders— Venus and her youthful Satellites arriving at the Isle of Paphos,' the first of his long series of representation of the undraped feminine form, for which Grecian and Roman poetry or legend suggested the subject or furnished the apology. 'I'hia was followed the next year by his Cleopatra's arrival in Cilicia,' a work far more glowing in colour, skilful in composition, and brillant in general effect ; and its success was complete. The painter at once became famous. It was com missioned by Sir Francis Erecting, who however, startled by tho then unusual freedom with which the painter had depicted his bevy of fair forms—for Etty, reading as literally as possible the statement that Cleopatra appeared in the character of Venus, with her attendants as Nereides, Graces, Cupids, and Tritoos, had reudered the voluptuous subject with infinite gusto—besought the painter to add a little drapery ; and, though he never added too much, the hint was not lost, for while, during the rest of his life the nude female form con tinued to be the chief subject on which he exercised his peucil, he henceforth seldom suffered one to appear without some, however scout and unserviceable, clothing.
After this great success Etty resolved again to visit Italy, and though he this time also carried with him a new love sorrow, be did not euffer himeelf again to return without seeing Rome. There, and at Venice, where he stayed seven months, he laboured with a diligence and copied with a rapidity and decision of execution, which astonished the degenerate native painters; and the effect of his studies of the great Venetian colourists was displayed in every picture he subse quently exeouted. On his return he painted a Pandora crowned by the Seasons,' which at the exhibition of 1824 won for him new laurels, had the singular honour of being purchased by the President, and pro cured his electicin as Associate of the Royal Academy. "Strike while the iron is hot; you see what may be done by a little courage," was the advice now tendered by his old master, and Etty profited by the well timed counsel. A succession of important works followed, some of large size and in the historical style, but mostly classic subjects of the order indicated above, and each succeeding oue,—until he became careless or negligent under the pressure of competing patrons claiming ever new pictures from hi u,—coutributing its share towards placing him in the position he ultimately obtained by general consent, of the first English colourist of his day, and also by far the first English painter iu his own peculiar walk of any day.
His life was a very quiet ono. His days were almost entirely spent in London and in his painting-room—the only breaks being an occa sional visit to a friend in the country, a run to Edinburgh or to the Netherlands, and a brief stay on account of illness at York. His evenings he passed, during the academic session, almost iuvariably in the Life School at the Royal Academy, where to the last he was one of the most regular and diligeut among the students—it being his practice to paint studies iu oil from the living model as ehown there by gas-light—a practice which explains much that is evil as well as good in his painting of flesh : and so much attached was he to the Life Academy, that when it was formally suggested to him from the academicians, in prospect of his election as R.A. in 1823; that those gentlemen wished him to discontinue his attendance, as they deemed his taking his place among the students Incompatible with the dignity of an academician, he replied that he would rather forego that honour, though the chief object of him ambition, than give up the Life Academy. Though always in love, Etty never married. A niece kept his house, and his quiet and bletneleas life pillaged on without adventure, in the steady practice of his calling, till 1843, when failing health and powers Induced him to return to his native city; where in a pleasant little house his remaining days, with the exception of his visits to London. passed in almost unbroken tranquillity. lio died there on the 13th of November 1949, end was buried in the churchyard of St- GInve Marygate; his funer.il being attended by large number of the citizens, headed by the mayor and other muni cipal authorities, with the Council of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, the pupils of York School of Design (in the establishment of which he took an active part), itc.
We hare not attempted to record the appearance of more than a few of Etty'a earlier pictures. To have mentioned in succession even the more attractive of the works of so prolific a painter during his career of nearly forty years would have been manifestly impossible here. The great event of his life was the collection of as many of his works as could be obtained, and their exhibition in 1848, in the rooms of the Society of Arts, and on that occasion were exhibited about 130 paintings, many of them of very large size. Few who saw that remarkable gathering will be likely to forget it, and the painter may well have felt proud us he gazed on so splendid a spectacle—and all the work of his own right hand.