John Marshall captured his friend, with her specific personality and beauty. The background is loosely painted with gestural brushwork. This suggests that the artist has deliberately added the arabesques, curlicues and other flourishes that enliven the Tosh setting. This nude painting has a patterned light red-ochre skin, white pillow and faint sheets which suggests a specific studio set-up, as in Mogdiliani or Botticelli. The contrast between the brushy backgrounds and the precisely delineated outlines of figurative details, distinguishes John Marshall’s painting from those of his previous work.