This work was painted on a panel already covered with what is apparently ordinary household paint, an example among several of Turner using the first material to come to hand (see also Nos.333 and 334). When exhibited again in 1810 it was entitled 'Poet's Garrett', and in 1809 it was exhibited with the following verses:
Aid me, ye Powers! O bid my thoughts to roll
In quick succession, animate my soul;
Descend my Muse, and every thought refine,
And finish well my long, my long-sought line.

These verses, with the possible exception of those for ‘Dolbadern Castle' and 'Caernarvon Castle' shown at the Royal Academy in 1800, are the first of his own to be published by Turner in an exhibition catalogue. There are drafts on the back of the study for the picture (see No.120). For a companion sketch of an artist's studio see No.121.

Pasquin, writing in The Morning Herald for 4 May 1809, attacked Turner for imitating Wilkie and attempting a genre to which he was not suited, concluding with ‘the insulted Garrateer thus indignantly admonishing the Royal Academician ...' Avaunt! presumptuous, proud R.A.
What wouldst thou here, so pert, so gay?
May thine own Gods forsake thee:
You've spoil'd the tadpole of a thought,
Which Genius from Apollo caught,
For wich [sic] the Devil take thee!