Early Victorian Portraits Catalogue

A painting by himself is in the Manchester City Art Gallery, exhibited Etty Retrospective Exhibition, Society (now Royal) of Arts, 1849 (LXXVII), Society of Artists, Birmingham, 1853 (324), and elsewhere, reproduced D. Farr, William Etty (1958), plate 20 (most of the self-portraits are discussed by Farr, pp 152-3), engraved and published by C. W. Wass, 1849 (example in British Museum); related versions or copies are in the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass; collection of J. Lunn, Bradford; Christie's, 20 February 1959 (lot 160), bought Douglas; Christie's, 21 July 1961 (lot 143), bought Atty; another painting by himself is in the collection of Jr. Thomas H. Etty, Leidschendan; a painting called Etty by himself (with the figures of a man, woman and child, said to be one of the artist's brothers, either Walter or John Etty, and family, in a domestic interior) is in the collection of Mrs Ursula Ali-Khan, a descendant of Walter Etty; the identification of Etty, shown with a sketch-book on the right, is probably correct (the picture, dated by Dennis Farr to c.1807-10, is much earlier than other recorded portraits of Etty, but the features agree well with later images of him); a drawing, probably by himself, of c.1840 is in the York Art Gallery; a drawing by himself is in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, exhibited British Portraits, RA, 1956-7 (707), engraved anonymously, published 1834 (example in NPG), for 'Arnold's Magazine of the Fine Arts'; a pencil copy by J. H. Mote (possibly for the engraving) is in the York Art Gallery; a water-colour head and shoulders (similar to that in the Ashmolean drawing) attributed to Etty was sold at Sotheby's, 18 December 1969 (lot 69); a drawing attributed to J. Linnell was in the collection of A. R. Hakoaumoff, 1935, reproduced as a woodcut, ILN, VII (1845), 29; a profile drawing by W. Dyce was exhibited SKM, 1868 (564), lent by R. E. Smithson; a water-colour by W. Nicholson is in the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, and a replica is in the Scottish NPG; a drawing by H. Baines of 1847 is in the King's Lynn Museum and Art Gallery, Norfolk; a drawing by W. H. Hunt (sketching in the life school) is reproduced Hunt, Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1905), I, 94; a medal by G. G. Adams, for the Art Union (example in NPG), was exhibited RA, 1872 (1464); an etching by W. Gale, was published Day & Son, 1864 (example in NPG) there is a photograph by J. Watkins and a woodcut from an unidentified magazine in the NPG, and various woodcuts and engravings, mainly after known types, in the British Museum; an engraving by C. W. Wass, from a daguerreotype of 1849, was published D. Bogue, for A. Gilchrist, Life of William Etty, RA. (1855), I, frontispiece.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Ormond, Early Victorian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1973, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.