William Etty, an English painter, born in York, March 10, 1787, died there, Nov. 13, 1849. He was the son of a baker, and at the age of 12 was apprenticed to a printer at Hull, with whom he remained seven years. He studied at the royal academy and as a private pupil of Sir Thomas Lawrence, but was long unsuccessful. In 1811 one of his pictures was admitted to the academy's exhibition; and in 1821 his "Cleopatra's Arrival at Cilicia," in which the nude female form was depicted with great correctness, and with a voluptuous glow of color, brought him into considerable notice. In 1822 he went to Italy, and spent many months in the study of the Venetian colorists. In 1848 an exhibition of his works was opened in London, prominent among which were the nine great paintings which he considered the triumphs of his artistic career, and in which he says he aimed "to paint some great moral on the heart." They comprise "The Combat," the three "Judith" pictures, "Benaiah, David's Chief Captain," "Ulysses and the Sirens," and the three pictures of "Joan of Arc." Etty is considered one of the chief artists of the modern English school.

He wrote an autobiography, which was published in the "Art Journal" for 1849; and his life has been written by A. Gilchrist (2 vols. 8vo, 1855).