La bella (copy of Titian)

La Bella (copy after Titian), painted around 1805 and now in the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull, is Etty's copy of Titian's celebrated portrait of an unidentified woman in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence — painted during his Italian travels of 1822-24 when he spent months copying Old Master works in Florentine and Venetian collections. Titian's La Bella (c. 1536), with its warm golden tones, luminous flesh painting, and the sitter's imposing presence in a blue dress, was among the most admired female portraits in Italian art, and Etty's careful copy reflects his determination to absorb directly from the source rather than from reproductive prints. The Ferens Art Gallery in Hull, opened in 1927 through the bequest of the shipping magnate Joseph Ferens, holds this copy alongside other British works as part of a collection that reflects Hull's historical importance as a North Sea trading port. Etty was born near Hull and maintained Yorkshire connections throughout his career; the Ferens's preservation of this Venetian study copy in his native region carries biographical resonance.

The copy reproduces Titian's rich chromatic harmonies, with the sitter's sumptuous costume rendered in deep blues and golds. Etty's brushwork inevitably differs from Titian's, tending toward the broader, more impasto handling characteristic of nineteenth-century practice. The exercise of copying allowed him to analyze the master's layered glazing technique from the inside, knowledge he applied to his original compositions.