William Etty

There are paintings by Etty in which the human body is contorted into such unexpected attitudes and volumes that one has to pity his models. The heavily foreshortened attitude of this muscular man is extraordinary and expressive. Leaving aside, as we sometimes must if we are to enjoy Etty's-work, his almost 'signature' failures of drawing, the volumes, textures and colour of this study form a powerful abstracted image which clearly appealed to the French- painter Albert de Belleroche, who owned it, and who also may be said to have deliberately thrown over disegno for colore in his own work. (from Maas Gallery label on verso)