Ariadne

Etty’s painting would have originated as an oil study of a reclining female model almost certainly made in the life-room at the Royal Academy, under strong overhead lighting. Throughout his career Etty painted hundreds of nude studies from both male and female models, usually on millboard as here, in evening sessions at the Academy, located initially at Somerset House and from 1837 occupying part of the new National Gallery building. (Etty’s home in Buckingham Street, off the Strand, was conveniently close to both.) These life studies, generally with the sketchiest of backgrounds, were not readily marketable works and most remained in Etty’s studio until his death. However, he successfully developed certain of them through the addition of invented settings and appropriate accessories to achieve finished, saleable pictures illustrating specific subjects – generally from myth, literature or history. Thus, in the present instance Etty has introduced shore, sea and sky to set the stage for his abandoned Ariadne.

We are grateful to Richard Green, honorary visiting fellow in the department of Art History at the University of York, for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.