WILLIAM Etty may well be considered “a controversial artist” (The Press, January 7), but as much could be said of many other artists and with greater justification.
To say that Etty was “shunned by the artistic community” is simply untrue. His friendship with Turner (insofar as acquaintanceship with Turner could be described as friendship) lasted until his retirement to York. The respect he enjoyed amongst his other fellow artists was of equal duration.
Even the evident decline in Etty’s later work, though observed by unforgiving critics, brought no diminution in the general respect in which he was held by his compeers. Certainly, his obsession with the female nude caused them dismay, and his naïve eroticism puzzlement. But then, it is a puzzle, is it not?
William Dixon Smith, Welland Rise, Acomb, York.
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