The Wrestlers is an oil painting by English artist William Etty, painted around 1840 in the life class of the Royal Academy. It depicts a wrestling match between a black man and a white man, both glistening with sweat and under an intense light that emphasises their musculature. Etty was best known for his paintings of nude or near-nude women in historical and mythological settings but had also painted men involved in various forms of combat. At that time, sports were becoming increasingly popular, and the painting is both a reflection of this trend and a part of the English tradition of copying poses from classical Hellenistic works. It was also a time of change in the British attitude to race relations. In this period Etty often made a conscious effort to illustrate moral lessons in his work, and it is not clear whether he chose the topic as a form of social commentary or simply because the contrast between the dark and pale flesh tones was visually striking. The Wrestlers, as part of a private collection, was not seen publicly from about 1849 until 1947, when it was put on sale and purchased by the York Art Gallery, where it remains.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrestlers_(Etty)

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1860:

South Carolina became the first of eleven slave states to secede from the United States, leading to the eventual creation of the Confederate States of America and later the American Civil War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederate_States_of_America

1955:

Cardiff (Cardiff City Hall pictured) was proclaimed as the capital of Wales. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiff

1957:

The first flight of the Boeing 707, the first commercially successful jet airliner, took place. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_707

1995:

As per the Dayton Agreement that ended the Bosnian War, the NATO-led IFOR began peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implementation_Force

2005:

US district court Judge John E. Jones III ruled against mandating the teaching of "intelligent design" in his ruling of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitzmiller_v._Dover_Area_School_District

2007:

Pablo Picasso's Portrait of Suzanne Bloch was stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Suzanne_Bloch

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

apeirogon: (mathematics, geometry) A polygon having an infinite number of sides and vertices. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/apeirogon

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

I see a fulfilment of the great Law of all worlds, that while the wisdom of Man thinks it is working one thing, the wisdom of Nature constrains it to work another, and quite a different and far better thing.   --Edwin Abbott Abbott https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edwin_Abbott_Abbott