During William and Mary Scott’s visit to Berlin in November 1963 , which lasted for approximately 18 months, Scott developed several new motifs including what Norbert Lynton has called the ‘wig stand’ figure that appears in the present and previous work. This theme, which is in fact a foreshortened figure, had first appeared in Scott’s work some years before and can be traced back to his studies at the Royal Academy in the early 1930s where ‘figure and portrait painting, drawing from the living model, were the only subjects of study permitted’ (W. Scott, quoted in William Scott, exhibition catalogue, op cit p 65).

The positioning of the central form in Blue Lady between two elongated vertical forms, one of which forms an almost brick-like construction, is considered to be a direct reference to the Berlin wall which divided East and West Berlin until its destruction in 1989.