Candaule, roi de Lydie, montre furtivement sa femme à Gygès, l'un de ses ministres, tandis qu'elle se couche

The story comes from the Greek historian Herodotus. Candaules, king of Lydia, was so proud of his wife's beauty that he hid his bodyguard Gyges in their bedroom to watch her undress, sure the man would agree she was the loveliest of women. She caught sight of the guard and gave him a grim choice, die for what he had seen or kill the husband who had shamed her. Gyges killed the king and took both his throne and his wife. Etty exhibited this in London in 1830, and it caused a scandal at once. He was the first British painter to build a career on the nude, and the press called this picture indecent, a lurid subject dressed up as history. The queen stands at the centre, fully lit, while her husband lies half in shadow behind her, watching for the guard's reaction.