An inscription on a label on the reverse signed and dated Edward Burne-Jones/The Grange: Northend Road London. 1894 reads: This picture was painted in 1893-4./it should remain for at least 5/years untouched--but at the end/of that time it might be varnished/carefully, by a skilled varnisher/with mastic.
Memorials vol 2 p 235 " The work-list for 1893 includes mention of four portraits in hand - an unusual thing. One of them was that of the little daughter of his friend Mrs Drew (Miss Gladstone)" Burne-Jones was always charmed by little children and couldn't resist being asked to paint them.
Did I ever tell you of a little Burne-Jons I saw in N.Y. on New Years day? It is a little girl in a red dress, sitting with a picture book in her lapm3 and belongs to a gentleman by the classic name of Smith, - ex-President of their Chamber of Commerce.4 It is a delightful little picture, and I enjoyed seeing it very much. 3. Unidentified. 4. Charles Stewart Smith. Smith was a well-known businessman, being senior partner in the dry goods commission firm of Smith, Hogg and Gardner in New York and serving on the boards of several businesses and institutions, He gave his collection of Japanese porcelain to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.