Online gallery fills the gap for art lovers

EVER fancied an Etty as your mobile phone cover? Well now you can have one – and until York Art Gallery reopens this summer, it's the closest you'll get to a masterpiece by York's greatest painter.

How can you get it? Simple: just download it from the York Museums Trust website. It's all part of a drive to open up access to the trust's online content.

"We're caring for a publicly funded collection, so we think it's only right to offer the images we create on the back of it," says Martin Fell, YMT's digital team leader.

The online project is one of a number of pioneering initiatives by the trust which includes a Wikimedian in residence to help share the collections through Wikipedia and its sister projects.

The trust is only releasing content that is free from rights use, which is why none of the contemporary artworks are available. But there are still thousands of paintings to browse through - not to mention countless other objects from the trust's extensive collection.

Until the museum reopens later this year, we will be dipping into the online gallery to share a few of the Art gallery's finest masterpieces with you. So here are a few to whet your appetite – or to put on that phone cover.

The Effect of Disobedience by James Ward from 1769 shows the prophet of Beth-el advancing, left middle distance, towards the corpse of the disobedient prophet, left foreground.

On the right sits the lion and behind stands the ass.

Ward was one of the most noted artists of his day, with an individual style and considered to be one of the most important animal painters of his generation as this work shows.

If you prefer more urban scenes, how about Refreshing the Weary by Robert Hannah, from 1847?

This is an important example in the British tradition of street narratives, influenced by Hannah witnessing the large daily intake to London of the rural working classes who arrived in search of work and lodgings.

The scene is set in a fashionable part of London early in the morning. In the background is a busy crowd of delivery boys and servants.

In the foreground is a country family who have come to London to join relatives or find work. Tired and thirsty, they have rested beside the pump on the left, only to find they cannot use it as it is padlocked.

However the water seller on the right, a retired soldier who makes a frugal living from his humble trade, takes pity on the little boy and quenches his thirst.

Perhaps the calming effect of water is more your cup of tea. If so the exquisite Sketch of a Waterfall by William James Muller from 1840 should do the trick.

Muller was an English landscape and figure painter, the best-known artist of the Bristol School.

Many of us would opt for an old scene of York and there is great atmosphere in The Old Ouse Bridge by William Marlow, 1768.

Throughout his career Marlow made oils and watercolours of London views. Noted for his bold, blue-toned watercolour style, with washes applied in loose blotches to emphasize the picturesque roughness of masonry and terrain, he visited many parts of Britain in search of subjects.

But when he came to York Marlow seems to have indulged in a bit of artistic licence. He describes the view as looking down the Ouse with on the left Saint William's Chapel and at extreme left the tall spire of Saint Mary's.

Trouble is that church is on the other bank. The one he refers to must be All Saints North Street, although even it seems to have moved a few hundred feet. There is another problem, too. What is now the King's Arms is missing on the right bank and the stretch from Tower Place to the bridge has shrunk alarmingly.

But for an accurate depiction of York you can always rely on William Etty and Monk Bar is one of his many classic cityscapes held in the gallery.

Etty campaigned tirelessly to save York’s architectural heritage from destruction and fought to prevent the Minster from being radically altered after a fire in 1829 and 1840. He was also instrumental in preventing the bar walls from being demolished.

Etty’s art divided public opinion during the first half of the nineteenth century more than that of any other British artist, with the possible exception of Turner, because of his repeated use of the female nude.

Many believed that the splendour of his richly coloured canvases was designed to disguise his underlying preoccupation with titillating forms of bodily display.

However, one critic declared Etty to be "the greatest of all our history painters". Another said the brilliancy of his colours were almost "too much for human eyes to dwell upon".

He was also described as the natural heir of the Old Masters, "rivalling Rubens and the great Venetians on their own ground".

When the gallery reopens you will be able to see why for yourself. York isn't short of old masters either. Sir Conyers D'Arcy by Sir Joshua Reynolds has been described as a monumental piece and that is no exaggeration.

The painting was bequeathed to York through the Art Fund, in 1955, in recognition of the remarkable efforts made after the Second World War by the curator to transform it into a gallery of international importance.

Imagine what the trustees would make of it, when the doors reopen in summer after an £8 million revamp.

The only worry is that all this online access might threatening the viability of galleries in much the same way e-readers do for books.

"Not at all," says Martin. "It's one thing to have an accurate image to let people get a feel for the artwork, but digital can't replace the physical in any way.

"It's the whole experience; walking into a gallery and being blown away by a Renaissance masterpiece."

To download images from the online collection, go to: yorkmuseumstrust.org.uk/collections