This is a reduced copy, with colour added, of a pencil drawing executed by Burne-Jones about 1872 (private collection; Burne-Jones, exh. Arts Council, 1975-6, no. 187). A later oil version, begun in 1877 and exhibited at the New Gallery in 1897, is in the Tate Gallery. The subject is taken from Chaucer's Romance of the Rose. It is possible that the copy was made when the drawing was seen in Burne-Jones's retrospective exhibition at the New Gallery in the winter of 1892-3, although a photograph of the drawing by Frederick Hollyer offers an alternative source.