 While Etty did have admirers , the patchy quality of his later work meant that he never acquired the circle of imitators and students that could have led to him being seen as the founder of the English realist movement , now considered to have begun in 1848 with the formation of the Pre @-@ Raphaelite Brotherhood . William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais , two of the three founders of the Pre @-@ Raphaelites , were heavily influenced by Etty 's early works but recoiled from his later style . Holman Hunt recollected that " in my youth [ Etty ] had lost the robustness he once had [ ... ] the paintings of his advanced age <unk> the taste by their sweetness " . Millais had consciously modelled his style on Etty , and his works prior to the formation of the Pre @-@ Raphaelites are very similar in composition , but after 1848 the only similarity in style is the use of colour . As Pre @-@ Raphaelitism waned Millais 's style became more varied , and some of his later work such as The Knight Errant owes a strong debt to Etty 's influence . 
