Study of a girl at her toilet (recto); and study of a king seated, attended by two girls (verso)

It has been suggested that the subject of the study on the reverse is Candaules, King of Lydia. Etty exhibited a composition entitled Candaules, King of Lydia, shows his wife by stealth to Gyges, one of his ministers, as she goes to bed at the Royal Academy in 1835. The subject is taken from Herodotus (I, chapter 8). Nyssia the Queen of Lydia, outraged at the indignity she had suffered then gives Gyges the choice either to be executed or to slay the King. Gyges chose the second option, then married Nyssia and reigned over Lydia for thirty- eight years. The composition exhibited at the Royal Academy was purchased by Robert Vernon, who subsequently presented to the National Gallery in 1847, and was then transferred to the Tate Gallery (see D. Farr, William Etty, London, 1958, no. 45).