The drawings relate to the second scene in the Pygmalion series, The Hand Refrains. Based on illustrations to William Morris's Earthly Paradise, these four designs were twice treated pictorially, in a small series dated 1868-70 (private collection) and a larger set exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1879 (Birmingham City Art Gallery). Our drawings, for the figure of Pygmalion contemplating the image he has created and the statue itself, were probably both made for the smaller and earlier set. This is certainly true of the study for the statue, which corresponds to this figure in the early painting but not to that in the later Birmingham version, where the figure has a different pose. A study for the figure in the later version was sold in these Rooms on 5 March 1993, lot 43