Studies of a Female Model

Studies of a Female Model, painted around 1805 and now in the University of Dundee Fine Art Collections, shows multiple poses of a female figure on a single canvas — a common practice in life-class sessions where the model assumed a new position after a fixed interval, typically twenty minutes. Female models were extremely rare in the Royal Academy life class during the early nineteenth century; Etty's extensive female nude studies were largely produced from models he hired privately, supplementing the exclusively male studio available to RA students. This multi-pose study, with its frank observation of the body in different attitudes, reflects the disciplined observation that Etty maintained from his earliest training throughout his career. The University of Dundee's fine art collection, housed within the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, preserves academic works within the educational context for which such studies were originally produced — connecting artistic practice with institutional training.

Executed with sensuous flesh painting and attention to dramatic chiaroscuro, the work reveals William Etty's characteristic approach to composition and surface. The treatment of light and the careful modulation of color create visual richness within a unified pictorial scheme.