This small, erotic drawing by Tracey Emin depicts a woman masturbating at the foot of a bed. The autobiographical focus of Emin’s work, especially relating to her sexual activities, has prompted her to use a bed on many occasions – most notoriously in her work of conceptual arte povera, My Bed (1998, Private Collection), an installation of the artist’s unmade and soiled bed. The bed in Small Thoughts is a secondary element of the picture, by comparison, though it sets the tone for the work and evokes the private atmosphere of the bedroom. Despite the autobiographical intent of Small Thoughts, the work also employs a number of art historical devices which separate it from Emin’s personal life and situate it in a wider context. The composition, a woman with her legs spread apart, indicates Emin’s admiration for the work of the Viennese artist Egon Schiele. Many of his nude figure gouaches and drawings depict a similar subject, pushing the boundaries of what was permissible in early-twentieth-century Europe. The two artists, Emin and Schiele, share a brazenly erotic quality, and many of the earlier artists’ works also depict masturbating female figures. Aside from its charged sexual subject, Small Thoughts is notable for its graphic qualities. Emin first trained as a printmaker at Maidstone Art College in 1984. At the time this work was made, she was serving as Eranda Professor of Drawing at the Royal Academy Schools – a post she held between 2011 and 2013. The monochrome use of a brilliant blue body colour coincides with Emin’s luminous neon signs. There is an intentional gaucheness in both cases, with Emin seeking out colours that give the most vivid effect.