The subject is Jenny Kapitan, photographed in the Newtons' new apartment, rue de l'Abée de l'Epée, Paris.

Newton explains: 'The setting is the studio in my new apartment...It is only recently that my nudes have become very, very naked, even to the point where I sometimes discard shoes...I have the feeling that these pictures represent a big departure for me...Over the last year or so, I've stated to tilt the camera to make diagonal compositions...Around 1936 [when Newton was working as a photographer's apprentice in Berlin] it was quite the thing in fashion and even portraiture.' (Quoted in Nude Theory)