 The young William showed artistic promise from an early age , drawing in chalk on the wooden floor of his father 's shop . From the age of four he attended local schools in York , before being sent at the age of 10 to Mr. Hall 's Academy , a boarding school in nearby Pocklington , which he left two years later . On 8 October 1798 , at the age of 11 , William was apprenticed as a printer to Robert Peck of Hull , publisher of the Hull Packet . While Etty found the work exhausting and unpleasant , he continued to draw in his spare time , and his job gave him the opportunity to broaden his education by reading books . It seems likely that it was working as a printer that led him to realise for the first time that it was possible for someone to make a living drawing and painting . 
