 Etty obtained a letter of introduction from Member of Parliament Richard Sharp to painter John Opie . He visited Opie with this letter , and showed him a drawing he had done from a cast of Cupid and Psyche . Impressed by the quality of his work , Opie in turn recommended Etty to Henry Fuseli , who accepted Etty into the Royal Academy Schools as a probationer . Having satisfactorily completed drawings from casts of Laocoön and " the Torso of Michelangelo " , Etty was accepted as a full student on 15 January 1807 . 
