The drawing comes from one of the pages in the album inscribed by Miss Moore 'Sir Harry Englefield's', and seems, like all the works in the album from this source to date from Fuseli's Roman years. The form of the signature, 'Fusili', suggests this, cf. lots p. 27 etc.
For Englefield see lot ...

The drawing seems to show a young woman, perhaps a courtesan slumped over her writing table, in a ......, having received, or in the process of writing, some disturbing communication. The figure behind could be her protector or bawd; if the drawing lot ... is related then a woman is shown.

The main drawing on the verso, in ink shows a girl full-face, one arm bent over her head, the other across her body. On the left, in pencil, is a head of a man wearing spectacles will an indication of his hand. This seems to be a self-portrait (cf. the self-portrait leaving on a table of c. 1777 in the National Portrait Gallery (S. 1743) and seems also to have acted as a study for the threatening figure on the recto, and also for lot 19. On the right is a further pencil study, perhaps of a hand