During the 1890s Burne-Jones and William Morris returned to those books which had inspired them as young men: Malory's Morte d'Arthur and Geoffrey Chaucer. The Australian mining millionaire W.K.D'Arcy commissioned Morris and Company to design The Quest of the Holy Grail tapestries for his house, Stanmore Hall, near Harrow. This consisted of five tapestries based upon the legend of the Holy Grail, culminating in The Attainment of Sir Galahad (exhibited at the New Gallery, 1898-99 in Central Hall). Morris asked Burne-Jones to draw cartoons for the series and the present drawing is a study of the head of the right-hand angel of a group of three guarding the Grail in the chapel on the right of the composition.
An alternative suggestion for the subject is the kneeling maiden in The Passing of Venus tapestry