On the wall is an image of Mount Parnassus, the mythological home of the Muses.

The work is a parody of the popular image of a struggling young artistic type.

[4] Turner had produced works that appeared to parody Wilkie's style.

[5] Turner gave up painting genre scenes after a few years, but other artists such as William Mulready built their careers on it.

Today it is in the collection of the Tate Britain in London, having been part of the Turner Bequest of 1856.