In the cramped space of the Royal Academy schools senior academicians and students alike were able to look about them and see on one side ‘an Academician making a drawing in black-lead pencil or red chalk, with all the minuteness of finish’ and on the other ‘a member of the same body dabbing in with a palette, knife, and a pencil’ to create the ‘most gorgeous effects’. Contrary to the hieratic structure of most late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century artistic training, the life class, as well as giving students the ability to study directly from the human form, encouraged an egalitarian sense of camaraderie, offering the opportunity for ‘contact and collision’ between artists, which Etty claimed resulted in ‘electric sparks and fire’. Martin’s Lane and Royal Academy drawing schools, Etty remained devoted to the life class throughout his career, attending sessions long after his official artistic training had finished and even when his deteriorating health made it inadvisable.

To contemporary artists, who marvelled at the depth and corporeality of his figures, he was renowned and highly praised for his ability to render flesh tints and his skill in capturing the human form.

Lot 171, William Etty R.A., Reclining female nude in an interior, Estimate £8,000–12,000

William Etty by Kathlin Furey