 Although recognisably descended from earlier works such as The Coral Finder , Pandora was a far more accomplished work than those Etty exhibited prior to his travels . Although some critics were reluctant to accept Etty 's combination of realistic figures and an unrealistic setting ( Etty 's 1958 biographer Dennis Farr characterises the critical reaction to Pandora as " grudging admiration not unmixed with philistinism " ) , his fellow artists were extremely impressed with it , to the extent that Thomas Lawrence bought the painting at the 1824 Summer Exhibition . 
