Preparing for a Fancy Dress Ball

Preparing for a Fancy Dress Ball, also known as The Misses Williams-Wynn,^[1] is a 173 by 150 cm (68 by 59 in) 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. The painting remained in the collection of Mary Williams-Wynn's descendants, and other than an 1849 retrospective exhibition, was not shown publicly for 160 years. A private collector purchased the piece from the Williams-Wynn family in 1982, where it remained until its 2009 acquisition by the York Art Gallery. It now forms part of a major collection of Etty's work there.