page_title: Preparing for a Fancy Dress Ball
section_title: Composition
hierarchical_section_title: Preparing for a Fancy Dress Ball / Composition
context_page_description: Preparing for a Fancy Dress Ball, also known as The Misses Williams-Wynn, is a 173 by 150 cm oil on canvas by English artist William Etty, first exhibited in 1835 and currently in the York Art Gallery. Although Etty was then known almost exclusively for history paintings featuring nude figures, he was commissioned in 1833 by Welsh Conservative politician Charles Watkin Williams-Wynn to paint a portrait of two of his daughters. Preparing for a Fancy Dress Ball shows Williams-Wynn's daughters, Charlotte and Mary, in lavish Italian-style costume: Charlotte, the eldest, is shown standing, helping the seated Mary decorate her hair with a ribbon and a rose. Etty put a good deal of effort into the piece and took much longer than usual to finish it.
  The painting was completed for and exhibited at the 1835 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. It was generally well received, even by critics usually hostile to Etty and his work. Preparing for a Fancy Dress Ball demonstrated that Etty was both capable of high-quality work and deserving of patronage by the English elite, and the success led to further commissions.
context_section_description: In late 1833 Etty was commissioned by Williams-Wynn to paint a portrait of two of his seven children. Preparing for a Fancy Dress Ball depicts Williams-Wynn's daughters Charlotte and Mary, dressing up in lavish Italian-style costume. Although their dress is generally described as Italian, Dennis Farr's 1958 biography of Etty speculates that elements of the costumes were possibly intended to be Russian, based on Charlotte's headdress. The Italian-style clothing likely represents the high level of interest in Italian culture in early 19th-century England. The popularity of the style of music now known as bel canto, widely associated with Italy, was at its peak; likewise, the Italian plays of William Shakespeare had become extremely popular in the period. Etty, who had spent a good deal of time in Venice and other Italian cities, would have been very familiar with Italian clothing designs, and the costumes worn by the Williams-Wynn sisters closely resemble those of women in Venetian scenes painted by Etty, such as 1831's Window in Venice, During a Fiesta. As art historian Leonard Robinson points out, despite the title the sisters are not in fact shown preparing for the ball, but are fully dressed. The style of the work reflects that of Thomas Lawrence, who had been Etty's teacher in 1807–08, as well as that of Joshua Reynolds, of whom Etty was a great admirer and of whose works Etty had often made copies as an exercise.
  The sisters are depicted in three-quarter length portrait; Charlotte, the eldest, stands and helps Mary, who is seated, to decorate her hair with a ribbon and a rose. Their arrangement is similar to the positioning of the central female figures of Etty's The Lute Player, painted around the same time, and Farr views Preparing for a Fancy Dress Ball as a direct continuation of the theme of that work. (The Lute Player was exhibited at the British Institution in early 1835 alongside Turner's The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, and was somewhat overshadowed by it. The Spectator commented that in comparison to the vibrant colours of the Turner, The Lute Player looked "as if mud had been the vehicle of the pigment".)
  The painting's depiction of preparation for a fancy dress party would have been familiar to Etty's generally wealthy audience. In both London and the English provincial cities, such balls and parties had become extremely fashionable by the 1830s. Though conservative in comparison to some costumes worn at contemporary fancy dress events, the richness of the design of the sisters' dress indicates the high status of the Williams-Wynn family in fashionable circles.
  Preparing for a Fancy Dress Ball took Etty some time to complete in comparison to his usual work, and he apologized to the sisters for his "inability to render [repeated sittings for him] less tedious". He justified the slowness of the process by saying that he was not simply trying to capture the Williams-Wynn sisters' appearance, but "to make a fine work of Art as well as a resemblance".
  I can only regret I had it not in my power to render it less tedious. A mere "likeness" may be manufactured in a few sittings. If it is desirable to make a fine work of Art as well as a resemblance, it becomes another affair. This has led me to extend my attention to it, beyond the limits usually assigned to Portrait. I am sure, if rightly viewed, the time will not be deemed uselessly employed. "What is worth doing at all, is worth doing well."—"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might!"
  — From a letter from William Etty to the Williams-Wynn family on the occasion of the sisters' last sitting for Preparing for a Fancy Dress Ball.
caption: The composition of Preparing for a Fancy Dress Ball reflects that of Etty's The Lute Player, exhibited in early 1835.
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