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''Preparing for a Fancy Dress Ball'', also known as ''The Misses Williams-Wynn'', is a oil on canvas by English artist William Etty, first exhibited in 1835 and currently in the York Art Gallery. Although Etty was then known almost exclusively for history paintings featuring nude figures, he was commissioned in 1833 by Welsh Conservative politician Charles Watkin Williams-Wynn to paint a portrait of two of his daughters. ''Preparing for a Fancy Dress Ball'' shows Williams-Wynn's daughters, Charlotte and Mary, in lavish Italian-style costume: Charlotte, the eldest, is shown standing, helping the seated Mary decorate her hair with a ribbon and a rose. Etty put a good deal of effort into the piece and took much longer than usual to finish it. The painting was completed for and exhibited at the 1835 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. It was generally well received, even by critics usually hostile to Etty and his work. ''Preparing for a Fancy Dress Ball'' demonstrated that Etty was both capable of high-quality work and deserving of patronage by the English elite, and the success led to further commissions. The painting remained in the collection of Mary Williams-Wynn's descendants, and other than an 1849 retrospective exhibition, was not shown publicly for 160 years. A private collector purchased the piece from the Williams-Wynn family in 1982, where it remained until its 2009 acquisition by the York Art Gallery. It now forms part of a major collection of Etty's work there. == Background == William Etty, the son of a York baker and miller, began as an apprentice printer in Hull. On completing his seven-year apprenticeship he moved to London at the age of 18, with the intention of becoming a history painter in the tradition of the Old Masters. Strongly influenced by the works of Titian and Rubens, he submitted paintings to the Royal Academy of Arts and the British Institution, all of which were either rejected or received scant attention when exhibited. In 1821 the Royal Academy accepted and exhibited one of Etty's works, ''The Arrival of Cleopatra in Cilicia'' (also known as ''The Triumph of Cleopatra''). The painting was extremely well received, and many of Etty's fellow artists greatly admired him. He was elected a full Royal Academician in 1828, ahead of John Constable. He became well respected for his ability to capture flesh tones accurately in painting and for his fascination with contrasts in skin tones. Following the exhibition of ''Cleopatra'', Etty tried over the next decade to replicate its success by painting nude figures in biblical, literary and mythological settings.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=About the artist )〕 Between 1820 and 1829 Etty exhibited 15 paintings, of which 14 depicted nude figures. Some nudes by foreign artists were held in private English collections, but Britain had no tradition of nude painting, and the display and distribution of nude material to the public had been suppressed since the 1787 Proclamation for the Discouragement of Vice. Etty was the first British artist to specialise in the nude, and the reaction of the lower classes to these paintings caused concern throughout the 19th century. Many critics condemned his repeated depictions of female nudity as indecent, although his portraits of male nudes were generally well received. (Etty's male nude portraits were primarily of mythological heroes and classical combat, genres in which the depiction of male nudity was considered acceptable in England.) From 1832 onwards, needled by repeated attacks from the press, Etty remained a prominent painter of nudes but made conscious efforts to try to reflect moral lessons in his work. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Preparing for a Fancy Dress Ball」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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