A Woman standing, seen from the back, drawing a curtain aside

In spite of her delicate slipper-clad feet, the transparent nature of the shift worn by this ‘courtesan’ gives a sense of the heft of her figure, suggesting a female of some force and power. Unlike the common fear expressed in John Knox’s 1558 tract, ‘The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regimen of Women’, Fuseli gained erotic enjoyment from his depictions of dominant women. An initial sketch of the woman’s pose shows her anatomy as if écorché or flayed, thereby emphasising her musculature.

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