A Caprice

A woman in a black dress with green details is being led by a short black-faced person in a red costume towards an arched doorway opening onto an auditorium.

The painting seems to be inspired by the first of Beardsley's three images depicting "The Comedy-Ballet of Marionnettes, as performed by the troupe of the Theatre-Impossible, posed in three drawings", which were published in the second volume of the avant-garde art journal The Yellow Book in July 1894.

The mouse is commonly interpreted a Freudian symbol for the penis, although some commentators have noted that Freud's psychoanalytical work was not known in London in 1894.

The paintings may be influenced by William Rothenstein, who also contributed to The Yellow Book and with whom Beardsley shared a studio.

Neither painting was finished, and the canvas was abandoned by Beardsley in 1895 and left behind at 114 Cambridge Street, Pimlico, when his lease ended.