Study for 'The Garden Court' episode in the Briar Rose series. Not used in 1873 version of the story, which has only three episodes, 'The Prince Enters the Wood', 'The King and his Court' and 'Sleeping Beauty', (now at Ponce Art Museum, Puerto Rico), but appears in the 1890 version at Buscot Park. On the basis of a group of drawings sold at Sotheby's Belgravia on the 26th June 1976, which were from a descendant of Maria Zambaco, amongst which a similar study believed to be by Maria, was included. The present drawing would seem to be a version by Maria which has been corrected by Burne-Jones. Burne-Jones had posed the models as sleeping figures for the first version of The Garden Court, but these were abandoned. The lower of the two figures is entirely from the hand of Maria while much of the upper figure is stronger and from the hand of the Master. Burne-Jones has added the signature and date as a complement to Maria