WILLIAM, R.A., one of the most eminent of British painters, was like Stothard and Flaxman, a native of York, where he was born 7th March 1787. His father had been in early life a miller, but had finally established himself in the city of York as a baker of spice-bread. His mother was in many respects a remarkable woman, and from this parent Etty, like many other men of genius, inherited the qualities by which he became distinguished in after life. The painter was the seventh in a family of ten, five of whom died young. With so many children to provide for out of comparatively slender means, it was impossible for the elder Etty's either to educate their family themselves or to send them to the public schools of the city. After some scanty instruction of the most elementary kind, the future painter, at the age of eleven and a half, left the paternal roof; and was bound apprentice in the printing-office of the "Hall Packet." Amid many trials and discouragements he completed his term of seven years' servitude, and having in that period come to know his own powers, he removed at the close of it to London. The kindness of an elder brother and a wealthy uncle stood him in good stead during his long and noble struggle against the trials and difficulties that beset the career of nearly every person who adopts the profession of art for its own sake. After a year and a half of preliminary study, he was enrolled in 1807 as student of the Academy, whose schools were at that time conducted in Somerset House. Among his fellow scholars at this period of his career were some of those who in after years rose to eminence in their art, such as Wilkie, Haydon, Collins, Constable, and others who still survive. This year is also memorable in Etty's life as that in which he enjoyed the privilege of the private instructions of Sir Thomas Lawrence, who was now at the very acme of his fame. Etty himself always regarded this privilege as one of incalculable value, and till his latest day regarded Lawrence as one of the chief ornaments of British art. For some years after he quitted Sir Thomas's studio, even as late as 1816, the influence of his preceptor was traceable in the mannerism of his works; but his later pictures prove that he had completely outlived it. Though he had by this time made great progress in his art, his career was still one of almost continual failure, hardly cheered by even a passing ray of success. It was not till 1811 that the sun began to shine upon him. In that year, after repeated rejections, he had the satisfaction of seeing his first picture on the walls of the Academy's exhibition-room. For the next five years he persevered with quiet and constant energy in overcoming the disadvantages of his early training with yearly growing success, and was even beginning to establish something like a name, when in 1816 he resolved to improve his knowledge of art by a journey to Italy. After an absence of three months, however, he was compelled to return home without having penetrated farther south than Florence. Struggles and vexations still continued to harass him, but he bore up against them with a patient endurance and force of will which ultimately enabled him to rise superior to them all. He had resided at home nearly six years since his unsuccessful journey into Italy, when he resolved to make arrangements by which he should be enabled to spend at least eighteen months in that native country of the pictorial art. Accordingly in 1822 he set out on his tour, taking Paris on his way, and astonishing his fellow-students at the Louvre by the rapidity and fidelity with which he copied from the old masters in that gallery. On arriving at Rome he immediately resumed his studies of the old masters, and elicited many expressions of wonder from his Italian fellow-artists for the same qualities as had gained the admiration of the French. Though Etty was duly impressed by the grand chefs-d'œuvre of Raphael and Michael Angelo at Rome, yet he was not sorry to exchange that city for Venice, which he always regarded as the true home of art in Italy. His own style held much more of the Venetian than of any other Italian school, and he admired his prototypes with a zeal and exclusiveness that sometimes bordered on extravagance. Early in 1824 he returned home to find that honours long unjustly withheld were awaiting him. In that year he was made an associate of the Royal Academy, and three years later he was promoted to the full dignity of an academician. In the interval between these dates he had produced the "Combat," and the "Judith," both of which ultimately came into the possession of the Scottish Academy, which body, to their credit be it told, were the first to discern and publicly appreciate the genius of Etty, and the value of his contributions to art. Etty's career was from this time one of slow but uninterrupted success. His works were not now as formerly allowed to remain upon his hands unsold; and though the prices which they fetched were almost incredibly small in comparison with the value now attached to them, yet they satisfied the artist's requirements, and even tempted him to persevere in the dangerous career of high art. In 1830 Etty again crossed the channel with a view to another art-tour through the Continent; but he was overtaken in Paris by the insurrection of the Three Days, and was so much shocked by the sights he was compelled to witness in that time, that he returned home with all convenient speed. During the next ten years of his life the zeal and unabated assiduity of his studies was not at all diminished, and he continued with marvellous regularity his various routine-duties in connection with the Academy, though his health was far from robust, and his circumstances were now such as to put it in his power to dispense with the multifarious drudgery which the fulfilment of these duties demanded. The course of his studies was only interrupted by occasional visits to his native city, and to Scotland, where he was welcomed with the utmost enthusiasm, and feted with the most gratifying heartiness by his brother-artists at Edinburgh. On the occasion of one of these visits he gave the finishing touches to the trio of Judiths, which form not the least interesting or valuable feature in the collection of the Scottish Academy. In 1840, and again in 1841, Etty undertook a pilgrimage to the Low Countries to seek out and examine for himself the masterpieces of Rubens which exist in many of the churches and public galleries there. Two years later he once more visited France with a view to collecting materials for what he called "his last epic," his famous picture of "Joan of Arc." This subject, which would have tasked to the full even his great powers in the prime and vigour of manhood, proved almost too serious an undertaking for him in his old age. It exhibits, at least, amid great excellences, undeniable proofs of decay on the part of the painter; yet it brought a higher price than any of his earlier and more perfect works, viz. L2500. In 1848, after completing this work, he retired to York, having realized a comfortable independence. Even his advanced years and increasing infirmities were as yet unable wholly to quench his artistic enthusiasm; for when his health allowed, he worked as assiduously as in his younger days. One wish alone remained for him now to gratify; he desired to see a "gathering" of his pictures. With much difficulty and exertion he was enabled to assemble the great majority of them from various parts of the British islands; and so numerous were they, that the walls of the large hall he engaged in London for their exhibition were nearly covered. This took place in the summer of 1849; on the 13th of November of that same year Etty died. On the occasion of his funeral, which was a public one, and attended by the corporation of York, the shops in the city were shut, the bells of the various churches were tolled, and other marks of respect paid to the memory of the deceased artist.

Etty has delineated himself in his autobiography (published in the Art-Journal), and in his letters and diaries recently (1855) given to the world in Mr Gilchrist's "Life" of this celebrated artist. The reproach often alleged against artists and men of science, that as men they are most frequently quite uninteresting, cannot with truth be asserted against Etty. In many points of view his is not only an interesting but a highly instructive career. Born of humble parents, without any advantages of early training, and in the face of difficulties before which any man might honourably have given way, he yet achieved for himself, by the innate force of genius, a conspicuous place in that walk of art which he selected for his own. It was not by a brilliant precocity, or the factitious success which sometimes accompanies the skilful mannerist or the daring innovator in art, but by a means resembling the slow certainty with which most of the great discoveries in physical science have been made in accordance with the inductive method, that he attained this result. Year after year he struggled on, often heart-sick and weary of the contest, yet with the inflexible resolution of reaching the point proposed, and in the attempt removing, so far as in him lay, the reproaches to which English art had too often been exposed from its successful cultivators on the Continent. The Italians, especially the Venetians, were the first to recognize very decidedly Etty's merits, more especially as a colourist. While copying the great masters in the Venetian galleries, he was often complimented with such expressions as "è un Ercole," "è un Tiziano," &c., and that not by casual acquaintances anxious to ingratiate themselves with him, but by fellow-artists as able and willing to detect blemishes as to acknowledge beauties. Similar and equally decided compliments were showered down upon him by the French who had opportunities of seeing him at work in the Louvre. The world at large now fully appreciates the works of this painter; and though it be too much to say that Etty equalled Titian as a colourist, yet it may perhaps be allowed to claim for him the name of the English Rubens, and all the respect and honour due to such a title.

In private life Etty was in many respects an admirable type of the English character. The lessons which he learned in early life from his mother continued to guide and influence him to the end; and though his religionism appears to have held more of sentiment than of study and conviction, yet it stood him in equally good stead in so far as it led him safely through the temptations with which the life of the artist is frequently beset. In the expressions of simple piety, manlike faith in the wisdom and goodness of an over-ruling Providence, and child-like submissiveness to its dispensations, the letters of Etty abound almost as much as those of Cromwell. For trivial backslidings, such as many men fall into without a thought, Etty implores forgiveness as fervently as if he had committed some heinous sin. The same principle seems to have actuated him in his dealings with his fellow-men. From the feeling of jealousy so common among artists, and from which he suffered so much himself, he was completely free. There is no more striking instance than his on record of generosity towards distressed fellow-artists, and of liberal encouragement of art, both by direct pecuniary aid and by the devotion of much valuable time to the service of the Academy. Towards his native city his heart always yearned with the most earnest longing. The course of modern improvements threatened from time to time the destruction of some of the interesting antiquities of the city. On these occasions the painter was ever ready both with tongue and pen to protest against the impending vandalism, and with such success that nearly everything that now remains to differentiate York from other provincial towns in England is due to his exertions. His grief for the Minster, which on two occasions was nearly destroyed by fire, was as poignant and lasting as is often testified by parents for the loss of a favourite child. His homeliness and domestic notions of comfort are also very English in character. Even in the course of his repeated journeys to the Continent, he used to carry with him a complicated tea-apparatus, which often excited the curiosity and suspicion of the custom-house officers in the various countries which he entered. (For a detailed account of the life, character, and habits of Etty, see the careful and interesting "Life" recently published by Alexander Gilchrist, Esq., of the Inner Temple, London.)