William Hogarth (1697-1764) A female nude c.1735, black and white chalk on buff paper

The drawing on display in this exhibition generally corresponds with the nude woman seated on the centre right of The Pool of Bethesda. Hogarth wanted to try and show the sorts of diseases that were being treated at the hospital and it is possible that this woman leaning back towards her lover was intended to be read as suffering from venereal disease.

Some discussion on this drawing has centred around the idea that the woman is actually a celebrated courtesan called Nell Robinson - the connection to venereal disease may be a red herring: it's likely that Hogarth actually used an existing drawing for the painting, and the female models for life-drawing at this time would usually have been prostitutes.