One of a series of preliminary sketches by designer Sophie Fedorovitch from a collection acquired by dance critic and author, Richard Buckle. The designer may be trying out different colourways for costumes, probably for the women's ball dresses in Frederick Ashton's 1936 ballet Nocturne. This sketch may date from the 1946 revival.

Nocturne was a ballet in one scene to a libretto by Edward Sackville West, choreographed by Frederick Ashton to Frederick Delius’s Paris. It was created by the Vic Wells Ballet,and opened at Sadler’s Wells Theatre on 10 November 1936. It had a simple narrative - a rich man, accompanying a woman to a ball, flirts with a flower seller and breaks her heart in the process - but was primarily a ballet of atmosphere. The set consisted of a low balustrade, pillars and a night sky against which the colours of the costumes appeared to great effect and the trains of the dresses of the ball-goers extended the movement.

Nocturne was revived for the stage of the Royal Opera House by Sadler’s Wells Ballet in 1946. It was last seen in its entirety in 1947 as Fedorovitch and others felt it was less effective on a larger stage although, as writer Lionel Bradley pointed out, ‘the ballet will always be worth seeing, if only for the music & very beautiful costumes’.