An intensely sensual female nude that presents the figure in the form of a pearl enclosed in its box, the ocean, which may be an allusion to the birth of Venus. Presented at the Paris Salon of 1863, this work was one of the most appreciated female nudes of Second Empire Paris, despite the strong criticism it received as an exultantly erotic work lacking any moral modesty. Its first owner was the Empress Eugenia de Montijo, and it work entered the Prado Museum as part of the legacy of Ramón de Errazu.