The Rape of the Sabine Women (after Peter Paul Rubens)

The Rape of the Sabine Women (after Rubens), painted around 1840 and now in York Art Gallery, is a copy of Rubens's famous treatment of the legendary Roman abduction. Etty's lifelong admiration for Rubens — whose dynamic compositions, sensuous flesh painting, and vibrant colorism he studied intensively — is demonstrated by this late copy. The Rape of the Sabines was one of the most dramatic multi-figure compositions in European art, requiring mastery of the nude in violent motion. Copying Rubens at this late stage in his career (Etty was in his fifties) reflects his ongoing engagement with the Baroque master's compositional principles and his belief in the educational value of copying great works throughout an artist's life.

Working after Rubens, Etty captures the violent energy of the original with sweeping brushstrokes and turbulent flesh tones, though his characteristic warmth softens the Flemish master's more dramatic contrasts.