William Etty - Sleeping Female Nude Lying on Sofa against a Red Curtain - image-1

Lot 2146 Nα

William Etty - Sleeping Female Nude Lying on Sofa against a Red Curtain

Auction 1231 - overview Cologne
18.11.2023, 11:00 - Old Masters and 19th Century, Part I
Estimate: 10.000 € - 15.000 €
Result: 12.600 € (incl. premium)
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William Etty

Sleeping Female Nude Lying on Sofa against a Red Curtain

Oil on canvas. 36.8 x 80 cm.
Signed lower right: WEtty.

Another version of the sleeper from a private collection is depicted on the cover of Leonard Robinson's biography of William Etty (see L. Robinson, William Etty: The Life and Art, Jefferson and London 2011). This picture appears to be a first, more loosely sketched version, the background elements of which are unfinished. The present work shows a more complete and comparatively precisely executed composition with still life elements added to the left foreground.

Etty drew the figure's pose from the so-called "Sleeping Hermaphrodite" or "Borghese Hermaphroditus", a famous marble sculpture from ancient Rome that recreates a lost Hellenistic bronze (Musée du Louvre, Paris). Interestingly, in the present version, Etty has flattened the female model's back more to make his nude more inkeeping with the famous sculpture.

Certificate

Richard Green, University of York (via Sotheby's, London, 2020).

Provenance

London, Christie's South Kensington, June 8, 2000, lot 248, - Private collection. - Sotheby's online, May 7, 2020, lot 97. - Private collection Guernsey C.I. (Great Britain)