William Etty was another notable instance of unflagging industry
and indomitable perseverance in art. His father was a ginger-bread
and spicemaker at York, and his mother--a woman of considerable
force and originality of character--was the daughter of a
ropemaker. The boy early displayed a love of drawing, covering
walls, floors, and tables with specimens of his skill; his first
crayon being a farthing's worth of chalk, and this giving place to
a piece of coal or a bit of charred stick. His mother, knowing
nothing of art, put the boy apprentice to a trade--that of a
printer. But in his leisure hours he went on with the practice of
drawing; and when his time was out he determined to follow his
bent--he would be a painter and nothing else. Fortunately his
uncle and elder brother were able and willing to help him on in his
new career, and they provided him with the means of entering as
pupil at the Royal Academy. We observe, from Leslie's
Autobiography, that Etty was looked upon by his fellow students as
a worthy but dull, plodding person, who would never distinguish
himself. But he had in him the divine faculty of work, and
diligently plodded his way upward to eminence in the highest walks
of art.
Many artists have had to encounter privations which have tried
their courage and endurance to the utmost before they succeeded.
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