This painting develops on a large scale the interior scenes of life at Petworth of the body-colours on blue paper (Nos.343-362). As in the case of 'Interior at Petworth' (No.339) no actual room can be identified but the mood of relaxed social activity, with an element of dressing up, comports with contemporary accounts of life in Lord Esremont's informal circle. It is impossible to date these pictures at all precisely, but the relatively thick paint and virtuoso handling seem to be characteristic of a stage in Turner's development in the mid 1830s, partly as a result of his interest in Rembrandt (see Nos.331, 332 and 338).