In 1832 Etty returned to the theme of A Sketch from One of Gray's Odes, exhibited in 1822 to such disdain from the press.
The result was Youth on the Prow, and Pleasure at the Helm, which remains one of his best known works.
Illustrating a passage from The Bard, a poem by Thomas Gray, Youth and Pleasure has been described as "a poetic romance".
It shows a gilded boat being propelled by the breath of a nude child on the sails; one nude figure representing Pleasure languidly holds the helm of the boat.
A nude child blows bubbles, which another nude on the prow of the ship, representing Youth, reaches to catch.
Naiads, again nude, swim around and clamber onto the boat.

The Bard was about the English destruction of Welsh culture and the subsequent decline of the House of Plantagenet and its replacement by the Welsh House of Tudor, and there was a general feeling among critics that Etty had misunderstood the point of the metaphors used by Gray.
Etty claimed that his unusual interpretation of the text was intended to create "a general allegory of Human Life, its empty vain pleasures—if not founded on the laws of Him who is the Rock of Ages", and that the painting served as a moral warning about the pursuit of empty pleasure.
This explanation appears to have left critics unconvinced.
Even those critics most favourable towards Etty's technical accomplishments in creating the picture found it hard to ascertain what the painting was supposed to represent; other critics were more openly hostile, with The Morning Chronicle condemning it as "indulgence of what we once hoped a classical, but which are now convinced, is a lascivious mind".
Purchased for a huge sum by Robert Vernon on its exhibition, Youth and Pleasure remained controversial long after Etty's death, with Farr's 1958 biography describing it as "singularly inept".

Also exhibited at the 1832 Summer Exhibition along with Youth and Pleasure was The Destroying Angel and Daemons of Evil Interrupting the Orgies of the Vicious and Intemperate, seen as a riposte by Etty to his critics.
Another of what Etty deemed "visions", depicting a wholly imaginary scene rather than one from literature, mythology or history, The Destroying Angel shows an imaginary classical temple under attack from a destroying angel and a group of daemons.
The human figures, intentionally painted in paler tones than usual to suggest death, each show their fear in a different way.
Painted soon after his 1830 travels, it is thought that the heaped corpses and terrified crowds were directly inspired by events Etty had witnessed in Paris.

Unlike Youth and Pleasure, the critical response to The Destroying Angel was generally favourable even from those critics usually hostile to Etty.
The painting generated favourable comparisons to Michelangelo and Rubens, and Etty's early supporter William Carey (writing under the name of "Ridolfi") considered it to be evidence of Etty's "redeeming grace and spirit".
The painting was explicitly seen as a renunciation by Etty of his previous nude studies, with Fraser's Magazine described it as "a sermon to [Etty's] admirers ... where he inflicts poetical justice upon his own gay dames and their gallants, their revels being broken in upon, and they themselves being carried off most unceremoniously, like that little gentleman Don Juan, by sundry grim-looking brawny devils".

At around this time Etty began to receive many unsolicited letters from wealthy Old Etonian lawyer Thomas Myers.
Myers was a huge admirer of Etty, and his letters mainly suggest literary topics he felt Etty ought to be painting so as to appeal to the nobility; he wrote regularly between July 1832 and May 1844.
Although eccentric and largely incoherent (one of his suggestions was for Etty to raise his profile by painting nude portraits of the wives of the aristocracy), Etty appears to have taken at least some of Myers's suggestions seriously.
In 1832 Etty returned to the theme of A Sketch from One of Gray's Odes, exhibited in 1822 to such disdain from the press. The result was Youth on the Prow, and Pleasure at the Helm, which remains one of his best known works. Illustrating a passage from The Bard, a poem by Thomas Gray, Youth and Pleasure has been described as "a poetic romance". It shows a gilded boat being propelled by the breath of a nude child on the sails; one nude figure representing Pleasure languidly holds the helm of the boat. A nude child blows bubbles, which another nude on the prow of the ship, representing Youth, reaches to catch. Naiads, again nude, swim around and clamber onto the boat.
The Bard was about the English destruction of Welsh culture and the subsequent decline of the House of Plantagenet and its replacement by the Welsh House of Tudor, and there was a general feeling among critics that Etty had misunderstood the point of the metaphors used by Gray. Etty claimed that his unusual interpretation of the text was intended to create "a general allegory of Human Life, its empty vain pleasures—if not founded on the laws of Him who is the Rock of Ages", and that the painting served as a moral warning about the pursuit of empty pleasure. This explanation appears to have left critics unconvinced. Even those critics most favourable towards Etty's technical accomplishments in creating the picture found it hard to ascertain what the painting was supposed to represent; other critics were more openly hostile, with The Morning Chronicle condemning it as "indulgence of what we once hoped a classical, but which are now convinced, is a lascivious mind". Purchased for a huge sum by Robert Vernon on its exhibition, Youth and Pleasure remained controversial long after Etty's death, with Farr's 1958 biography describing it as "singularly inept".
Also exhibited at the 1832 Summer Exhibition along with Youth and Pleasure was The Destroying Angel and Daemons of Evil Interrupting the Orgies of the Vicious and Intemperate, seen as a riposte by Etty to his critics. Another of what Etty deemed "visions", depicting a wholly imaginary scene rather than one from literature, mythology or history, The Destroying Angel shows an imaginary classical temple under attack from a destroying angel and a group of daemons. The human figures, intentionally painted in paler tones than usual to suggest death, each show their fear in a different way. Painted soon after his 1830 travels, it is thought that the heaped corpses and terrified crowds were directly inspired by events Etty had witnessed in Paris.
Unlike Youth and Pleasure, the critical response to The Destroying Angel was generally favourable even from those critics usually hostile to Etty. The painting generated favourable comparisons to Michelangelo and Rubens, and Etty's early supporter William Carey (writing under the name of "Ridolfi") considered it to be evidence of Etty's "redeeming grace and spirit". The painting was explicitly seen as a renunciation by Etty of his previous nude studies, with Fraser's Magazine described it as "a sermon to [Etty's] admirers ... where he inflicts poetical justice upon his own gay dames and their gallants, their revels being broken in upon, and they themselves being carried off most unceremoniously, like that little gentleman Don Juan, by sundry grim-looking brawny devils".
At around this time Etty began to receive many unsolicited letters from wealthy Old Etonian lawyer Thomas Myers. Myers was a huge admirer of Etty, and his letters mainly suggest literary topics he felt Etty ought to be painting so as to appeal to the nobility; he wrote regularly between July 1832 and May 1844. Although eccentric and largely incoherent (one of his suggestions was for Etty to raise his profile by painting nude portraits of the wives of the aristocracy), Etty appears to have taken at least some of Myers's suggestions seriously.
William Etty