The World Before the Flood is an oil painting on canvas by English artist William Etty, first exhibited in 1828. It depicts a scene from John Milton’s Paradise Lost in which, among a series of visions of the future shown to Adam, he sees the world immediately before the Great Flood. The painting was bought at the Summer Exhibition by the Marquess of Stafford.
About The World Before the Flood in brief
The World Before the Flood is an oil painting on canvas by English artist William Etty, first exhibited in 1828. It depicts a scene from John Milton’s Paradise Lost in which, among a series of visions of the future shown to Adam, he sees the world immediately before the Great Flood. When first exhibited at the 1828 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition the painting attracted large crowds, and strongly divided critical opinion. The painting was bought at the Summer Exhibition by the Marquess of Stafford. It was sold in 1908, long after Etty had fallen out of fashion, for a substantial loss, and sold again in 1937 for a further substantial loss to the Southampton City Art Gallery. Etty was the first British artist to specialise in paintings of nudes, and the reaction of uneducated audiences to these paintings caused concern throughout the 19th century. Many critics condemned his repeated depictions of female nudity as indecent, although his portraits of males in a similar state of undress were generally well received. Another work by Etty,. sold as A Bacchanalian Scene in 1830 and later renamed Landscape with Figures, was identified in 1953 as a preliminary oil sketch for The World Before The Flood and purchased by the York Art gallery. The two paintings were exhibited together as part of a major retrospective of Etty’s work in 2011–12.
This section of Paradise Lost reflects a passage from the sixth chapter of the Book of Genesis, and shows the world after the expulsion from Eden of the Garden of Eden but before the Flood. The paintings are currently on display at the Southampton City Art Gallery, where they are on loan from the National Gallery of Art, London, until the end of the year. For more information, visit the gallery’s website or visit www.southamptoncityart.org.uk/world-before-the-flood-paintings-by-will-etty-and-more-than-one-of-your-favorite-painting-works-from-milton-to-be-displayed-in-a-major-retrospective-of the-19th-century-artistic-painter-works in the Sunderland-City-Art Gallery and the York Art Gallery on the same website. For information on how to get your hands on a copy of the painting, or to order a copy, call the gallery on 08457 90 90 90 or visit the website of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, or the Royal College of Art in the City of London, on the following links: http://www.royalacademyofarts.org/Art/Art-Exhibition-Exhibitions/Exhibits/World-Before-Flood-Paintings/The-World- Before-The-Fl Flood.html. To see more information about the exhibition at the Southampton City Art Gallery, click here.
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This page is based on the article The World Before the Flood published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 31, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
