 Under this arrangement Etty did not receive formal tuition from Lawrence . Instead , Lawrence set aside a room in his attic for Etty to copy from his pictures , and agreed to answer Etty 's questions when he was in a position to do so . Etty found the experience of trying to copy Lawrence 's work extremely frustrating , and in his own words " was ready to run away " , but he persisted and eventually taught himself to copy Lawrence 's work very closely . Although Etty found his year with Lawrence a frustrating experience , his development of the ability to copy other works served him in good stead in future when he came to copy elements from the Old Masters . 
