A photograph of an old label attached to the reverse of the frame reads 'By E.B.J./of great value/given me by Exors either of his/or of Sir Philip's Estate, after 1920/probably/perhaps noted on one/of them TMR'.
A study for The Sirens (Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida), a picture designed in 1870 but still not finished at Burne-Jones's death twenty-eight years later. The drawing can be dated to the late 1880s when the artist had a phase of using this particular type of chalk and paper. T.M. Rooke was Burne-Jones's studio assistant from 1869. According to the inscription in his hand, he was given the drawing by the executors either of Burne-Jones himself or of his son Philip (died 1926). Two more studies for The Sirens with the same provenance were in the exhibition cited above (nos. 19-20)