The elements in this painting are placed according to an underlying, meticulously constructed skeleton. While one might be tempted to read this work as an essay in the objectification of women, the cool look over the figure’s shoulder undermines any sense of it.

This image demonstrates Colville’s interest in imbuing the everyday with heightened symbolic content, pairing a human figure with an object standing in for the figure—a binary relationship that would come to define his mature work.