Written by Noël Coward (1899-1973) and set in 1956 in the Parisian studio of the late artist Paul Sorodin, Nude with Violin, a satire on modern art and critical pretension, opened at London’s Globe Theatre on 7th November 1956. John Gielgud starred as Sorodin’s discreet butler Sebastien Lacréole, with Joyce Carey as his widow Isobel, David Horne as Sorodin’s art dealer Jacob Friedland, and Kathleen Harrison as Cherry-May Waterton, one of Sorodin's former lovers and the real painter of works from his so-called ‘Circular’ period.

Coward later recalled the reviews as hostile, saying the play: ‘received almost unanimous abuse from the critics and ran to capacity for 18 months’. After the show closed in London and a pre-Broadway tour it opened at New York’s Belasco Theatre where it ran for a limited season of 86 performances until the 8th February 1958, with Coward himself as Sebastien. Coward then presented and starred in it in San Francisco and Los Angeles in repertory with his 1939 comedy Present Laughter.

This poster is dated 23rd September 1957 and was printed to feature Michael Wilding who took over Gielgud’s role of Sebastian that Monday.