The Englishman William Etty became famous in his homeland through provocative nude paintings, which were considered immoral and indecent in their time. Repeatedly, his pictures caused a scandal and provoked strongly negative reactions from the bourgeois public. His paintings showed scenes from classical mythology whose protagonists were naked as in "The Judgement of Paris" or "Diana standing at a waterfall".
Etty was born as the son of a London baker and began training as a draughtsman at the age of eleven, some of which he received from his uncle, who was also a painter. When Etty showed his painting "Amor and Psyche" to the painter John Opie, the latter suggested him for the Royal Academy of Arts, where he was a student and later a teacher. Etty was often accused of painting too offensive pictures and thus not behaving adequately according to the customs of the Royal Academy. Etty, on the other hand, thought he was an admirer of beauty who never sought to seduce or do anything immoral. The beauty of a woman longed for her naked image. Unveiled, female innocence was only all the more visible. "To the pure in heart, all things are pure."
The Englishman William Etty became famous in his homeland through provocative nude paintings, which were considered immoral and indecent in their time. Repeatedly, his pictures caused a scandal and provoked strongly negative reactions from the bourgeois public. His paintings showed scenes from classical mythology whose protagonists were naked as in "The Judgement of Paris" or "Diana standing at a waterfall".
Etty was born as the son of a London baker and began training as a draughtsman at the age of eleven, some of which he received from his uncle, who was also a painter. When Etty showed his painting "Amor and Psyche" to the painter John Opie, the latter suggested him for the Royal Academy of Arts, where he was a student and later a teacher. Etty was often accused of painting too offensive pictures and thus not behaving adequately according to the customs of the Royal Academy. Etty, on the other hand, thought he was an admirer of beauty who never sought to seduce or do anything immoral. The beauty of a woman longed for her naked image. Unveiled, female innocence was only all the more visible. "To the pure in heart, all things are pure."
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