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 (1904-2000) starred as Sorodin’s discreet valet Sebastien Lacréole until 14th June 1957 when Michael Wilding took over the role.

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 until the 8th February 1958 for a limited season of 86 performances, 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.

The artist of this sketch Peter Lambda (1911-1995), born in Budapest, is better known as for the theatrical busts he created in the 1950s, including those of Laurence Olivier, Leslie Banks and Claire Bloom. By 1939 when Lambda settled in London and embarked on a dual career as writer and sculptor, he had already established the main strengths of his work as portraits, caricatures and figure studies. Lambda depicts Giegud wearing the mourning arm-band Sebastien wore following the death of his employer. He is opening the letter entrusted to him by Sorodin that tells his family he never painted any of the works attributed to him except for a watercolour of a dog that he did as a child.