Commissioned by the Turkish diplomat Khalil-Bey, a passionate collector of erotic art, the painting’s provocative nature was deliberate from the outset. Drawing on Baudelaire's poem "Delphine et Hippolyte," Courbet presents a scene of female intimacy that subverted two academic taboos: the nude detached from mythological justification and the explicit depiction of sapphic desire. The composition hinges on contrasts—the fair skin and red hair of Joanna Hiffernan against the darker complexion of the second model—while the meticulously rendered foreground of linens and drapery constructs a sealed, private boudoir that heightens the sense of voyeuristic immersion. Rejecting Salon ideals, Courbet emphasizes naturalistic postures, bodily weight, and chiaroscuro, transforming the subject from a frivolous erotic vignette into a programmatic realist manifesto on physicality, devoid of allegorical disguise or moral judgment.