Circle of William Etty RA (1787-1849)

Venus and Adonis

Oil on board, laid onto panel, 72.5cm by 62cm, unframed

The present painting shows the beginning of the relationship of Venus with Adonis, as recounted in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Venus has been accidently wounded by one of Cupid’s arrows while playing with him and Cupid cowers behind her back in embarrassment or shame. It is at this moment that Venus first glimpses the huntsman Adonis and, thanks to Cupid’s arrow, immediately falls in love with him.

William Etty was certainly familiar with the Metamorphoses. Although he did not exhibit any work specifically titled Venus and Adonis, he knew and copied Titian’s version of the subject, which was part of the founding collection of the National Gallery, opening in 1824 (now catalogued as workshop of Titian). However this illustrates a subsequent development in the story, where Venus is attempting to restrain Adonis from going to the hunt, which will prove fateful for him. At the British Institution of 1829 Etty showed 'A subject from Ovid’s Metamorphoses’ (no.232), measuring 3ft 11in. square in its frame. This, though, represented ‘a pair of lovely figures standing in the water embracing', according to a review in the Gentleman's Magazine, as quoted by Dennis Farr, and cannot have been the present work.

Though the painting here is close to Etty is certain ways - for example, the landscape background could pass for Etty and the obvious derivation of the figure of Venus from a life-room study of a female nude, without any attempt at modification, is typical of him. It is curious, however, that the shadowed parts of the goddess's body are scarcely, if at all, modulated by paint applied over the brownish ground, the latter thus fully exposed. In the light-catching parts of Venus’s body the paint is applied very smoothly leaving no evidence of individual brushstrokes. In contrast, bold brushwork is much more apparent in the figures of Adonis and Cupid. Neither the face of Adonis nor the attempt to imbue the figure of Cupid with an expression of emotion seem right for Etty.

It has been suggested therefore that this might be a collaborative work between Etty and another from his circle, or indeed an example entirely by another hand, but by an individual in the orbit of William Etty.

We are grateful to Richard Green for his assistance with the cataloguing of this lot.