The World Before the Flood
The World Before the Flood is an oil-on-canvas painting by the English artist William Etty, first exhibited in 1828 and currently in the Southampton City Art Gallery. 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 illustrates the stages of courtship as described by Milton; a group of men select wives from a group of dancing women, drag their chosen woman from the group, and settle down to married life. Behind the courting group, an oncoming storm looms, foreshadowing the destruction which the dancers and lovers are about to bring upon themselves.
The World Before the Flood, 1828, 140 by 202.3 cm (55.1 by 79.6 in)
William Etty, 1844
Etty reused the figure of the seated black soldier from his The Triumph of Cleopatra (1821).
Preliminary oil sketch, c. 1828
William Etty was an English artist best known for his history paintings containing nude figures. He was the first significant British painter of nudes and still lifes. Born in York, he left school at the age of 12 to become an apprentice printer in Hull. He completed his apprenticeship seven years later and moved to London, where in 1807 he joined the Royal Academy Schools. There he studied under Thomas Lawrence and trained by copying works by other artists. Etty earned respect at the Royal Academy of Arts for his ability to paint realistic flesh tones, but had little commercial or critical success in his first few years in London.
William Etty, self-portrait based on an October 1844 photograph by Hill & Adamson
Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn and his mother Frances Shackerley, Joshua Reynolds, c. 1768–69. By the early 19th century Reynolds's style dominated British art.
Sketches from the Elgin Marbles by William Etty. Aspiring students were expected to draw from classical sculptures as part of the admission process.
The Missionary Boy (1805–06) is thought to be Etty's oldest significant surviving painting.