Allegorical Study (a sketch after Anthony van Dyck)

An allegorical subject after Anthony van Dyck places Etty in dialogue with the great Flemish master who had transformed British portraiture during his years at the court of Charles I. Painted around 1805 and held at Leeds Art Gallery, this sketch after Van Dyck demonstrates the breadth of Etty's Old Master studies, which encompassed Flemish as well as Venetian painting. Van Dyck's elegant figure compositions and silvery palette offered a different model from the warmer Venetian colors Etty more typically emulated.

The allegorical composition is translated through Etty's characteristic warmth, giving Van Dyck's cooler, more aristocratic style a more robust, physical quality. The sketch format preserves the spontaneity of Etty's initial response to the source painting. Broad strokes establish the main compositional rhythms and color harmonies without the refinement of a finished copy.