This painting is a preliminary sketch for Etty’s major painting “The Combat Woman Pleading for the Vanquished. An Ideal Group” (oil on canvas, 100 x 135 inches). This painting, which now belongs in the National Gallery of Scotland. It was originally bought from Etty by the painter, “Mad” John Martin who later sold it to the Royal Scottish Academy in 1831. The National Gallery of Scotland acquired it in 1910.
Etty was born in York, and studied painting at the Royal Academy Schools and under Sir Thomas Lawrence and Henry Fuseli. He travelled in Italy in 1821-3 for the purpose of studying Renaissance and Baroque painting; this proved an important formative influence on his own style. His subjects are generally mythological and his handling of paint is rich and free; he particularly revelled in the painting of nudes. He exhibited his large scale works at the Royal Academy and British Institution; he had many followers and imitators, and influenced the course of figure painting throughout the Victorian era. He lived in London and later in his native city, York, where he died in 1849.