W E S T B U R Y

WILLIAM ETTY, R.A.

The Triumph of Galatea


Oil on millboard, laid on panel:

29 x 20 ¾ in. (73.8 x 52.8 cm.)


PROVENANCE:

Private American collection.

With Peter Nahum, The Leicester Galleries, London.

etty_galatea

NOTES:

After completing his Grand Tour in 1824 Etty returned from Italy with a deeper respect for and understanding of the Old Masters he had seen there. The influence of the paintings he had seen in Italy continued to have a profound and lasting effect on his work; he was later to remark in his ‘Autobiography’ that he had been “enriched with inspiration from Raphael”.  The present painting might be described as evidence of such enrichment in that Etty has borrowed from Raphael’s fresco in the Villa Farnesina in Rome; taking the central character of the nereid Galatea and one of the amorini, the one holding a quiver, in order to create a semblance of intimacy within this romantic composition.

This painting, dating from about 1828, remains, by reason of its classical subject and immensely decorative appeal, one of the most important works by William Etty currently available. 

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