THE ETTY COLLECTION AT THE SOCIETY OF ARTS.
The experiment made last year by the Society of Arts, of exhibiting at one view the works of a living painter, proved so successful, that this year the plan is repeated with the works of William Etty: the principal room exhibits Etty's professional history since he first came into prominent notice; and in the committee-room are a few small pictures, principally studies. The collection differs in one remarkable particular from the Mulready collec- tion—the omission of the artist's early pictures. Mr. Etty first attained a place of prominence by his picture of " The Combat," which was intended to exemplify mercy, and was painted in 1826; a few of the pictures go back to 1822; and one bears the date of 1821. The omission is the more to be regretted, since Etty has confessedly attained his success by years of labour; and the student who had to contend with similar difficulties might have de- rived no small encouragement in tracing his progress from the earliest stage. As it is, some ease may be given to the painter's pride by withholding works decidedly inferior to those exhibited; but on the other hand, a sort of injus- tice is inflicted, even on him, by limiting tbe view to a part only of his ca- reer. In those qualities for which he is most distinguished, the picture of " Cleopatra" (painted in 1821) is not far behind some of his best works; in other respects it suffices to mark a decided progress. A general dispro- portion reigns throughout; the head of the Cleopatra defies alike the ordi- nary proportions of sex and perspective. " The Combat " (1826) is one of Mr. Etty's most powerful paintings; but perhaps his culminating point was attained in the "Judith and Holofernes" (1827). The design is straight- forward, well conceived, and vigorous: Holofernes lies supine, his athletic frame unloosed by sleep; Judith holds the hair of his head, and lifting the faulcbion towards heaven, invokes strength from the Lord God of Israel: the story is perfectly set forth; the colouring, if heavy, is at once sober and powerful. From this point, the progress of the painter is marked by se- veral concurrent and gradual changes, an estimate of which is scarcely complete without noting the task that he had assumed. The Catalogue quotes a statement by himself touching the nine large pictures which crown the present collection— "My great aim in all my great pictures has been to paint some great moral on the heart. The Combat, the beauty of mercy ; the three Judith pictures, [there are two pendants to it, as to the Joan of Arc,] patriotism and self-devotion to her country, her people, and her God ; Benalah, David's chief captain, valour; Ulysses and the Syrens, the importance of resisting sensual delights, or an Ho- menc paraphrase on 'the wages of sin is death.' The three pictures of Joan of Arc, religion, valour, loyalty, and patriotism, like the modern Judith: these in all make nine colossal pictures, as it was my desire to paint three times three." " No exquisite reason, but reason good enough," either for a toast at a public dinner or a series of pictures. The moral aim we have no doubt was quite sincere; but it scarcely survived the "Holofernes." " The Com- bat" was painted before; by the time the artist came to " Ulysses and the Syrens," the moral had ceded the first place, and had become ancillary to the exhibition of the nude. Survey the walls with one sweeping glance, and say what was the branch of his subject which Etty developed; ask " Phredria and Cymochles." The athletic men which it formed so great a part of Etty's ambition to design, dwindle to small parts in the great drama; his Mars is always enslaved by a Venus. The design also shrinks to a small share in the picture, being mostly a pretext only for exhibiting the nude; with the design and the expression, the countenance loses its import- ance, and not only becomes a blank in expression, but sinks even to an ac- cessory in the painting. The drawing, which in the earlier pictures be- comes more finished and more powerful, drops out of the artist's attention with the careful outline, and the later pictures are painted by dabs of colour.
It is as a colourist that Etty makes the highest pretension; but the his- tory of his career in that single branch points a moral not altogether of the happiest sort. By a diligent practice with the brush, he acquired a con- siderable facility in painting the broader surfaces of the female form— evidently the favourite portions of his work. But that he attained no vrinciple, of colouring, appears from the fact, that while his colour in those portions grows brighter, in the more limited surfaces, and the face es- pecially, it grows heavy, harsh, and mechanical: black greys load the half-tints, the modelling of the features becomes clogged with intractable masses of clotted pigment, and the cheeks blush with a set patch of coarse rouge. After a while, the artist's eye became vitiated—he saw in black greys and heavy reds; and ultimately, the harsh, coarse, ponderous tints, which had established themselves on the extremities, gradually extend over the broader surfaces of the body; and such brightness as Etty had is lost in that murky tinge.
He was a victim to the common disease, manner. Repeating himself, which became comparatively easy, he lost his guide, Nature, and gradually drifted further from his model. He painted the "Holofernes" twenty-two years ago, and has since painted nothing to equal it as a whole. His know- ledge of pigments has become greater; his skill of hand more certain; he had fallen more into the true bent of his genius, when he left the didactic for the voluptuous: but he thought himself warranted to indulge greater carelessness; he neglected to make the other parts of his pictures worthy of those parts which were more to his taste; he allowed his works to be
damaged by a spontaneous imperfectness: he was punished by the loss of the skill towards which he had made so much progress.
Such we take to be the severe moral of a collection which may serve to cheer both Etty's friends and his enemies; since it displays many admirable qualities, and more beauties than some would care to admit; while it ac. counts for the flaws of his later works. On the whole, however, the exhi- bition is calculated to restore his reputation, by reproducing better pictures than those which he has of late years exhibited.
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