William Etty

realism

William Etty Paintings 1787 - 1849 English artist, historical scenes

Candaules, King of Lydia Shews his Wife by Stealth to Gyges, One of his Ministers, 1830

oil on canvas, 45 x 56 cm,(18 x 22 in.)

Tate, presented by Robert Vernon 1847

Nude Art

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Candaules, King of Lydia Shews his Wife by Stealth to Gyges, One of his Ministers, 1830 by William Etty is entirely handmade without use of artificial methods. It is painted on linen canvas with oil paints of the highest French quality.

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OIL PAINTING: Candaules, King of Lydia Shews his Wife by Stealth to Gyges, One of his Ministers, 1830
With this cynical subject of voyeurism and vengeance Etty was testing the limits of what could be accepted as high art, which may explain why he opted to represent the scene on a modest scale. The painting depicts an episode recounted by the Greek historian Herodotus in which the Lydian king Candaules arranges for his general Gyges secretly to view his wife Nyssia as she disrobes. Furious at her husband's impudence and betrayal, the queen presents Gyges with the option of either execution or murdering the king, a dilemma which drives him to slay Candaules and marry Nyssia.
The pose of Nyssia probably originated as a life-study, with the rest of the subject developed at a later stage. In positioning the principal figure to be viewed from behind, Etty makes the spectator complicit in Candaules' plot, our view completing the circumspection of the queen. The picture entered the collection of Robert Vernon but when it became public property following his gift to the nation in 1847, it w