I find one of the best places to lose myself is the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight, which has a wonderful collection of pre-Raphaelite and other artworks. But one which always draws my eye is Andromeda by William Etty. It’s not the best of his works by any means (Musidora: The Bather is maybe my favourite) but I just love how he captures movement and mood in his work. I’m no expert in art by any means, but who says you need to be in order to be influenced and moved by what you see?
Early in his career he was lambasted for being pornographic in his unusually realistic portrayal of the body (Great review from The Times in 1822 reads ‘We take this opportunity of advising Mr. Etty, who got some reputation for painting “Cleopatra’s Galley”, not to be seduced into a style which can gratify only the most vicious taste. Naked figures, when painted with the purity of Raphael, may be endured: but nakedness without purity is offensive and indecent, and on Mr. Etty’s canvass is mere dirty flesh’) but in addition to his own genius, his huge influence on Millais, Holman-Hunt and other pre-Raphs is unmistakable and he deserves to be far better known than he is in my humble opinion.
I can’t say what it is about this particular painting, except perhaps I always find her plain on first impressions, but the closer you look at the face the more beautiful (and troubled) it becomes. And that’s an aspiration for anything you can create, the more you look, the more you see. If you get the chance go and see it, and spend some time looking into her eyes.