Most Of The Finer Pieces, I Observed, Were
Marked 'sold;' They Brought Prices Varying From Thirty To Fifty Guineas.
There is an exhibition now open of the paintings of Etty, who stands high
in the world of art as an historical painter.
The "Society of the Arts" - I
believe that is its name - every year gets up an exhibition of the works of
some eminent painter, with the proceeds of which it buys one of his
pictures, and places it in the National Gallery. This is a very effectual
plan of forming in time a various and valuable collection of the works of
British artists.
The greatest work of Etty is the series representing the Death of
Holofernes by the hand of Judith. It consists of three paintings, the
first of which shows Judith in prayer before the execution of her attempt;
in the next, and the finest, she is seen standing by the conch of the
heathen warrior, with the sword raised to heaven, to which she turns her
eyes, as if imploring supernatural assistance; and in the third, she
appears issuing from the tent, bearing the head of the ravager of her
country, which she conceals from the armed attendants who stand on guard
at the entrance, and exhibits to her astonished handmaid, who has been
waiting the result. The subject is an old one, but Etty has treated it in
a new way, and given it a moral interest, which the old painters seem not
to have thought of.
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