WILLIAM ETTY, R.A. | A STUDY OF A STANDING FEMALE NUDE

Sale: Sotheby's, London, May 31, 1961, lot 204

Private Collection, Chicago

Thence by descent to the present owner in 1988

Throughout his career, William Etty made over eight hundred studies like the present lot in the life room of the Royal Academy. What is particularly fascinating about this academic life room study is that the board appears to have been originally intended for a subject painting, as suggested by the ghostly semi-crouching figure in the background. It is then probable that Etty abandoned this more complex composition and reused the board for this life study. 

We are grateful to the art historian Richard Green for endorsing the attribution to William Etty, R.A. on the basis of images and for his assistance with the cataloguing of this painting.