A pig in a poke (BM 1868,0808.5471)

The interior of a lady's dressing-room: she is represented fully dressed on the left and naked on the right, her attitude in both cases being the same, and imitating that of the Venus de' Medici, a statuette of whom stands on a wall-bracket. The two figures stand back to back, looking towards the spectator. The dressed figure wears a large feathered hat, puffed-out hair with pendant tresses, a projecting gauze-covered bust on which her right hand rests, her petticoats extend backward in a sweeping curve, a small foot in a high-heeled shoe projects from her petticoat. The naked figure is lean, with flat breasts, and entirely without the feminine curves which are added by her dress. Her hair is straggling and lank; her feet large and ill-shaped, her face pale. She stands before the mirror on her dressing-table, on the ground is a false 'derriere', see BMSat 6874; a similar arrangement hangs on the wall, other garments are draped over a chair. Three pictures are on the wall: on the extreme left in an oval frame is partly visible a picture of a seated lady on whom Death, a skeleton, is making a furious onslaught (cf. BMSat 5441). Above the head of the dressed figure is 'In the Poke', a countryman holding a bulky sack. Above the naked figure is 'Out the Poke', in which the pig scampers away from the empty sack. 6 February 1786

Etching with hand-colouring