This monochrome study demonstrates Burne-Jones's ability to draw with a paintbrush. The study is for a female sleeping attendant in one of a series of four paintings. It takes the theme of the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty, but freezes it at a moment before the princess is woken by the prince's kiss. One theory is that the series refers to Burne-Jones's disquiet at the impending marriage of his daughter, Margaret, wishing her to remain untouched for ever. Certainly, the sleeping girls, all of whom share the features of the figure in this study, resemble Margaret, and he gave his daughter a gouache version of the sleeping princess as a wedding present. The finished paintings are in the Faringdon Collection at Buscot Park in Oxfordshire.