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ETL
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ETT

* ETLAR, Carit, the pseudonym of Johan Carl Brosböll, a well-known Danish novelist, born at Fredericia, 7th August, 1820. He was intended for trade; but, having no aptitude for its details, he entered in his sixteenth year the academy of arts at Copenhagen, which, however, he soon afterwards quitted, and in 1844 entered the university. In 1853 he was elected amanuensis of the royal library. Amongst his best works may be mentioned—"Smuglercus sön;" "Hedemanden;" "Gjöngehövdingen;" and "Hertuginde Teyano." He has also written plays which, however, are less esteemed than his novels.—M. H.

* ETTMÜLLER, Ernst Moritz Ludwig, a distinguished German litterateur, was born at Gersdorf, near Lobau, Saxony, on October 5, 1802, and studied medicine at Leipzig, which he, however, forsook for the study of the Teutonic languages. In 1828 he settled at Jena as a lecturer, and in 1833 was called to a professorship at Zurich. He has edited a number of old and middle German texts, published a valuable "Anglo-Saxon Dictionary," and written some volumes of original poetry.—K. E.

ETTMÜLLER, Michael, a chemist of Leipzig, flourished in the seventeenth century, and was one of the leaders of the intro-chemical school. His views appear to have been much influenced by those of Robert Boyle. He distinguished between the acid and putrescent phases of fermentation.—J. W. S.

ETOILE, Pierre de l', grand auditor of the chancery of Paris, was born in that city in 1546, and, having studied at Bourges, occupied his time in keeping a miscellaneous journal, which is a mine of valuable materials for the history of the reigns in which he lived. His official duties afforded him many opportunities of becoming acquainted with state secrets and scandals, which he carefully recorded. The original work which filled five folio volumes, has been lost. It has furnished, however, two curious memoirs—the Journal of Henry III. from 1574 to 1589, of which the first edition was published in Paris in 1621; and that of Henry IV. These have been often reprinted. The best edition is that of the Abbé Lenglet Dufresnoy, which is, moreover, enriched with other pieces illustrating the times. L'Etoile died in 1611 greatly embarrassed, for his love of medals, coins, and curious books emptied his pockets and compelled him to sell his office. The purchaser was a rascal; and he lost one half of its value in obtaining the other.—T. J.

ETTY, William, R.A., the most distinguished of English colourists, was born at York, March 10th, 1787, at No. 20 Feasegate. His father, like the fathers of Rembrandt and Constable, was a miller; he was also a gingerbread baker, but this business was chiefly attended to by Etty's mother. Young William was apprenticed in 1798 to Robert Peck, a letter-press printer in Hull, with whom he served seven years, and he had a hard time of it—"harassing and terrible duties, late and early, frost and snow, sometimes till twelve at night, and up again at five." He practised drawing and colouring, too, whenever he had an opportunity, and had such an intense desire to be a painter, that "the last years of his servitude dragged on most heavily;" as he says in his autobiography, "he counted the years, weeks, days, and even hours." His seven years' captivity in Scale Lane were at length ended, and in 1806 he removed to London, to his uncle William in Lombard Street, and laboured industriously to qualify himself to become a student of the Royal Academy. He obtained permission to draw the ancient group of "Cupid and Pysche," in the shop of an Italian named Gianelli, in Cock Lane, Smithfield; and he and Collins, the landscape painter, entered the academy the same week in 1807. By the generosity of his uncle, William Etty, he was also enabled to become the private pupil of Sir Thomas Lawrence, then living in Greek Street, Soho; but the fashionable portrait-painter's occupation was so incessant that his pupil was left almost entirely to his own resources, to the mere copying of his master's heads without direction, and he writes—"Despair almost overwhelmed me, I was ready to run away, I felt that I could not get on, but a voice within said, Persevere! I did so, and at last triumphed, but I was nearly beaten." From the studio of Sir Thomas (then Mr.) Lawrence Etty went to the British institution, there to copy the "old masters," and this, he says, he found easy after copying Lawrence. His favourite place of study, however, was the "life school," or the school of painting from the living model in the Royal Academy; and this remained his loved place of study to the very last, until he retired to York. Fuseli was keeper of the academy in Etty's time, and many of his fellow-students have long since made names in art, and some have already passed away—Collins, Hilton, Jackson, Haydon, Wilkie, Mulready, Leslie, Constable, Baily, Eastlake, &c., all terrible competitors for him. His industry was indefatigable; he tried for all medals, gold and silver, yet never gained one; he could not even get a picture exhibited at the British institution, much less the academy. Of six pictures he sent one year to the academy, all were rejected; and he exhibited for several years without attracting any notice. This was enough to break the heart of a weaker man. Success, however, came at last. A new name burst upon the exhibition visitors in 1820, when Etty's "Coral Finders" was the cynosure of all eyes, though he had been an exhibiter for eight years: his name occurs for the first time in the academy catalogues, in 1811, in his twenty-fifth year. Leslie has termed Etty's early pictures generally—"black and colourless attempts at ideal subjects." The fault of want of colour he had now effectually conquered, and in 1821 he exhibited another splendid picture, "Cleopatra." He now established his reputation, and notwithstanding so many disappointments, commenced his great career at the comparatively early age of thirty-five. They are fortunate whose uphill work ceases in middle life. In June, 1822, Etty, a new man by the merits of his last picture, set out on a tour to Italy. He visited Paris, Florence, and Rome, where he arrived in August; he then visited Naples, returned to Rome in October, and made some studies of Paul Veronese and Titian, his predilection for the colourists asserting itself even in Rome. Several English artists were at this time resident in Rome, among whom were Sir C. Eastlake and Mr. Severn; but they were unable to persuade Etty to prolong his stay there. He left for Venice, where he spent the winter. It was at Venice that he found the real attraction for his taste—"Venice, the birth-place and cradle of colour, the hope and idol of my professional life!" He made several copies of celebrated pictures there, among them the Pisani Paul Veronese, now in the National gallery; he studied also in the academy of Venice, and was elected an honorary member of it. He returned to London early in 1824, and sent in that year to the academy "Pandora, crowned by the Seasons," from Hesiod, for which he was elected an associate of the academy. In 1825 he took up his abode in Buckingham Street, near the river, a residence he never changed in London; and in this year was exhibited one of his great works, "The Combat; Woman Pleading for the Vanquished"—an ideal group; three large figures, grand in spirit, and coloured with all the power of Titian. In 1826 appeared the "Choice of Paris;" in 1817, "Judith" and two others; and at the close of this year he was elected an academician. In an autograph sketch, published in the Art Journal in 1849, Etty has himself pointed out what he considered his best works. He remarks, in reference to his so often painting the naked figure, that he never recollected being actuated by an immoral sentiment—"to the pure in heart all things are pure." "My aim in all my great pictures has been to paint some great moral on the heart. 'The Combat'—the beauty of mercy; the three 'Judith' pictures—patriotism, and self-devotion to her country, her people, and her God; 'Benaiah, David's chief captain'—valour; 'Ulysses and the Syrens'—the importance of resisting sensual delights, or a Homeric paraphrase on the 'wages of sin is death;' the three pictures of 'Joan of Arc'—religion, valour, loyalty, and patriotism, like the modern Judith. These in all make nine colossal pictures, as it was my desire to paint three times three." Of the above great pictures the Royal Scotch Academy is in possession of "The Combat," "The Benaiah," and the three "Judith" compositions. Etty received for "The Combat" only three hundred guineas; the Scotch Academy has refused two thousand five hundred pounds for it. Etty in his biography thanks the artists of Scotland for their encouragement in purchasing these great epic efforts. In the summer of 1849 an exhibition of Etty's works, to the number of one hundred and thirty pictures, took place in the large room of the Society of Arts at the Adelphi, and displayed the astonishing powers of the painter, more especially as a colourist, and in this respect at least rivalling his great models Titian and Paul Veronese; his drawing is often affected and mannered, but also sometimes beautiful, correct, and grand. In the Vernon collection are some exquisite gems by Etty, as the "Imprudence of Candaules;" the "Lute Player;" the "Window in Venice," the sketch of "Mary at the Sepulchre;" and a picture Etty has included among his capital works, "Youth on the Prow, and Pleasure at the Helm," from Gray. He purchased