One of the most successful British artists of the early nineteenth century, Etty's work has been neglected until recently. This first major study of Etty's work in over fifty years reassesses his use of the nude, his training at the Royal Academy and his large scale historical canvases and proposes a new framework within which his art can be understood. Featuring a series of scholarly essays written by leading experts in the period, the catalogue will interrogate the casting of Etty as a figure of controversy in British art and re-examine his important and energetic contribution to artistic practise in the nineteenth century.