Youth on the Prow, and Pleasure at the Helm is an oil painting on canvas by English artist William Etty, first exhibited in 1832. The piece was inspired by a metaphor in Thomas Gray’s poem The Bard in which the apparently bright start to the notorious misrule of Richard II of England was compared to a gilded ship. Etty chose to illustrate Gray’s lines literally, depicting a golden boat filled with and surrounded by nude and near-nude figures. The painting was bought by Robert Vernon to form part of his collection of British art.
About Youth on the Prow, and Pleasure at the Helm in brief
Youth on the Prow, and Pleasure at the Helm is an oil painting on canvas by English artist William Etty, first exhibited in 1832. The piece was inspired by a metaphor in Thomas Gray’s poem The Bard in which the apparently bright start to the notorious misrule of Richard II of England was compared to a gilded ship. Etty chose to illustrate Gray’s lines literally, depicting a golden boat filled with and surrounded by nude and near-nude figures. The painting was bought by Robert Vernon to form part of his collection of British art. It remains one of Etty’s best-known works, and formed part of major exhibitions at Tate Britain in 2001–02 and at the York Art Gallery in 2011–12. The Arrival of Cleopatra in Cilicia in 1821 was a critical success, and over the following years Etty painted further nudes in biblical, literary and mythological settings. All but one of the 15 paintings Etty exhibited in the 1820s included at least one nude figure. Although Etty was the first British artist to specialise in the nude, and the reaction of the lower classes to these paintings caused concern throughout the 19th century. Although his portraits of male nudes were generally well received, many critics condemned his repeated depictions of female nudity as indecent. Although the seas are calm, a nude figure representing the Zephyr blows on the boat, a large bouquet of flowers lies on the helm of the boat.
A nude on the prow of the ship, representing Youth, reaches to catch Naiads, which swim around and clamber around again and again. A child, which blows bubbles, which is another nude, represents another child, and a demonic figure is forming the horizon, with a whirlwind forming on the horizon. The boat and the clouds are intertwined within the storm, with the wind allowing the breeze to guide it. It is described as creating ‘a poetic romance’, but critics felt that Etty had somewhat misunderstood the point of The Bard. The work is now held at the National Gallery of Art in London, and was transferred to the Tate Gallery in 1949. It has been exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London since 1832, and has been on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1971, and is on display in the London Art Gallery since 1989. The National Gallery has also held exhibitions of the work at the Art Institute of London and the London Museum of Modern Art in the past, including in 2001 and 2011. It was sold to the Metropolitan Art Gallery for £1,000,000 in 2007, but has since been sold for £2,500, and will be displayed in a private collection.
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