Exhibited in 1831 with the following lines from du Fresnoy's De Arte Graphica:

White, when it shines with unstained lustre clear,

May bear an object back, or bring it near.

Turner illustrates this theory with a tribute to Watteau, including among the pictures in the background ‘Les Plaisirs du Bal', in reverse and therefore probably from the engraving by Gerard Scotin although the picture was already in the Dulwich Gallery, and 'La Lorgneuse’ which then belonged to Turner's friend Samuel Rogers. The companion painting (No.333) was similarly a tribute to Van Dyck.

As in the case of the companion picture contemporary critics were on the whole surprisingly complimentary, showing an appreciation of Turner's special effects of colour. Who but Turner, asked the Library of the Fine Arts for June 1831, could have painted this picture with its almost impossible effects produced on principles directly opposed to those generally adopted, his lights merging in depths, his depths thrown deeper by his lights, and this all in a mere sketch and apparently produced without effort?' The Athenaeum for 21 May called it 'of the wildest of this artist's colouring fancies’ but went on, 'What a trifle in the tone would destroy the beauty. We have not seen this picture commended, but to our taste it is full of delicacy and beauty, and is a rich gem.'