Not on display
- Artist
- William Etty 1787–1849
- Medium
- Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions
- Support: 1587 x 1175 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Presented by Robert Vernon 1847
- Reference
- N00356
Display caption
Thomas Gray’s poem The Bard, published in 1757, fascinated many of the Romantic generation. Etty’s picture illustrates the linesIn gallant trim, the gilded vessel goes,Youth on the Prow, and Pleasure at the Helm,Unmindful of the sweeping whirlwind’s sway.Etty was renowned for his sensual depiction of the nude. He shows youth snatching at the ‘bubbles of pleasure’ until woken from its indulgence by ‘the whirlwind of distress’. He described the work as an ‘allegory of human life’.
Gallery label, May 2007
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.
Explore
- leisure and pastimes(7,743)
- recreational activities(2,909)
- bathing / swimming(226)
- recreational activities(2,909)
- literature and fiction(3,205)
- nature(46,524)
- animals: birds(1,333)
- bird - non-specific(465)
- natural phenomena(3,349)
- bubble(8)
- plants and flowers(2,760)
- garland(34)
- seascapes and coasts(8,331)
- sea(3,654)
- weather(3,963)
- animals: birds(1,333)
- people(35,850)
- society(35,456)
- birth to death(1,460)
- youth(196)
- transport: water(8,432)
- boat - non-specific(2,264)
- sail(82)
- birth to death(1,460)
- symbols and personifications(7,285)
- birth to death(114)
You might like
William Etty The Coral Finder: Venus and her Youthful Satellites, replica
c.1820–48
William Etty Hero, Having Thrown herself from the Tower at the Sight of Leander Drowned, Dies on his Body
exhibited 1829
William Etty Candaules, King of Lydia, Shews his Wife by Stealth to Gyges, One of his Ministers, as She Goes to Bed
exhibited 1830
William Etty The Parting of Hero and Leander
exhibited 1827
William Etty Britomart Redeems Faire Amoret
exhibited 1833
William Etty Musidora: The Bather ‘At the Doubtful Breeze Alarmed’, replica
?exhibited 1846
William Etty The Dangerous Playmate
exhibited 1833
William Etty Miss Mary Arabella Jay
exhibited 1819
William Etty The Magdalen
?exhibited 1842
William Etty Study of a Peacock for ‘The Judgement of Paris’
?c.1826
William Etty Il Duetto (‘The Duet’)
exhibited 1838
William Etty The Fairy of the Fountain
1845
William Etty The Saviour or the Disciple
date not known
William Etty The Lute Player
exhibited 1835
William Etty Female Bathers Surprised by a Swan. Verso: Terpsichore (?) with Putti
exhibited 1841