Beschreibung:

William Etty (British 1787-1849) Phaedria and Cymochles on the Idle Lake Oil on canvas 59.5 x 79cm (22 1/4 x 31 in.) Provenance: Louis Huth (parton of James McNeil Whistler), London Charles P. Matthews, of 23 Hertford Street, and Havering-Atte-Bower, Essex Christie's, 6 June 1891, Lot 28 (200 gns to Agnew) Thomas Agnew & Sons, London Cyril Flower, 1st Baron Battersea (1843-1907) and by inheritance to his widow Constance, Lady Battersea Thomas Alder Thorp Brigadier R.S.C. Britten, M.C. Sale, Sotheby's, London, 18 February 1970, Lot 120 (£1200 to M. Newman) M. Newman Ltd., London, sold 1970 Sale, Christie's, London, The Forbes Collection of Victorian Pictures and Works of Art II, 20 February 2003, Lot 174 Acquired from the above by The Lord Wraxall Exhibited: London, Royal Academy, 1835, no.310 Manchester, Royal Manchester Institution, 1835, no.85 London, British Institution, 1862, no. 186, lent by Louis Huth London, Royal Academy, Exhibition of Old Masters, 1875 The Art and Mind of Victorian England, 1974, no.11 The Royal Academy (1837-1901) Revisited, 1975-6 ,no.14 The Pre-Raphaelite Era, 1976, no. 2-15 Literature: The Times, 23 May 1835 A. Gilchrist, Life of William Etty R.A., II, London, 1855, pp.23 and 33 W.T. Whitley, Art in England 1821-1827, Cambridge, 1930, pp.299-300 W. Gaunt and W. Roe, Etty and the Nude, Leigh-on-Sea, 1943, p.96 D. Farr, William Etty London, 1958, pp.68, 72-3, 151, under no. 78 T.L. Sloan, 'Phaedria and Cymochles on the Idle Lake', Record of the Art Museum: Princeton University, XXVII, no. 2, 1968, pp.81-83 (Princeton Version Only) M. Freeman, 'Kinetic Art in the Forbes Collection', New Jersey Music & Arts, September, 1974, p.74, reproduced S. Casteras, The Substance of the Shadow: images of Victorian Womanhood, exh. cat., Yale, 1982, p.73, under no.30 William Etty (1787-1849) was one of the first British painters of nudes and still lives, often incorporating his figures into history paintings in the grand manner which, during the early nineteenth century was widely regarded as the noblest genres of painting. Born in York, Etty moved to London in 1805 to study at the Royal Academy, also spending a year in the studio of Sir Thomas Lawrence in 1807. Between 1822 and 1824, Etty embarked on an extended Grand Tour of Italy, spending nine months in Venice. Influenced by the work of the Old Masters and in particular the Venetian School, Etty exhibited a number of works at the Royal Academy throughout the 1820s with much more success that in the previous decade. With all but one of the works he submitted during this time including a female nude in an historical setting, he soon gained a reputation for indecency, despite being commercially successful. Etty was elected an Associate of the Royal Acedemy in 1824, and a full Academician in 1828. The present lot Phaedria and Cymochles on the Idle Lake was exhibited, with another six works by the artist, at the Royal Academy in 1835. Inspired by Edmund Spensers epic poem The Faerie Queene [Book II, Canto 6], it tells the tale of the knight Cymochles, a man of rare undoubted might but given all to lust and loose living who sets out to avenge the death of his brother Pyrochles but is interceded by Phaedria, the lady of the Idle Lake who symbolises immodest mirth. First published in circa 1589 (Books I, II, III) and then republished in 1596 (with Books IV and V), The Faerie Queene is one of the longest poems in the English language as well as the origin of the verse form known as Spenserian stanza. During the nineteenth century Spensers poem had enormous appeal to the Romantic artists on account of its wealth of pictorial incident and its Renaissance pedigree. Etty himself had previously turned to Book III of the poem as inspiration for Britomart Redeems Faire Amoret which was exhibited in 1833. Indeed, the present lot is the second attempt by the artist to depict Phaedria and Cymochles in this scene. The first version, now at Princeton University Art Museum, New J