"Nature Unveiling Herself" by William Etty (original) (raw)

Nature Unveiling Herself

William Etty (1787-1849)

Oil and graphite on board

63.5 x 33 cm (25 x 13 inches)

The relation between the title of the work and its appearance is subtly dialectical. On the one hand, the insistently displayed frontality shows the woman without the usual compositional trappings that would (as it were) dress her up as a classical, academically sanctioned nude. On the other hand, the title Nature Unveiling Herself provides a contextual factor that allows the blatancy of visual address to be made respectable as an allegory. [Paul Crowther’s commentary continued below]