This is one of two such preliminary studies for the two pictures of Gregor Samsa. Mine is for the second one, and I assume the other is for the first one, but I only saw it once, many years ago. ‘Metamorphosis’ is one of several works for which I posed

naked or nude, a formal distinction, discussed by Kenneth Clark and John Berger etc, complicated by my relationship with Paula. The pose was made possible by a system of pulleys enabling my legs to be raised without difficulty. The picture was commissioned by our mutual friend Marina Warner for a show entitled Metamorphosis held at the Science Museum in 2002. There is another version of this picture, locked up in a different way, with fruit, the remains of a meal, beside the figure, who is facing in the opposite direction. This is in the Kistefos Museum, about 50 miles from Oslo. The tiled floor gave Paula a great deal of time and trouble to get right.