Standing Male Nude, Raised Right Arm, Right Foot Resting on Blocks (recto)

A standing male model raises his right arm while resting his right foot on blocks—a standard pose used in Royal Academy life classes to display muscular tension and anatomical structure. Painted in 1830 and now in the Courtauld Gallery, this recto study captures the kind of disciplined observation that formed the backbone of academic art training in nineteenth-century Britain. Etty's sustained commitment to such exercises was both admired and mocked by contemporaries who felt established Academicians should have moved beyond the life class.

The raised arm and weight-bearing pose create a composition of controlled tension that reveals the engagement of multiple muscle groups. Etty models the anatomy with warm, luminous flesh tones, using cool half-tones in the shadowed areas. The blocks beneath the foot are rendered with minimal detail, serving purely as props to achieve the desired pose.