Burne-Jones first drew the boat of Charon in the Cupid and Psyche series of c.1866 and again an indirect reference is made in The Souls by the River Styx of 1873-6, but this vigorously animated drawing is unique. The majority of Burne-Jones's figures are passive and this drawing has an obvious personal significance. The similarity of mood and atmosphere suggests Burne-Jones was aware of Gustave Dore's illustrations to Dante's inferno (1857) and, in his 1871 Sketchbook 19, Luca Signorelli, The Damned Cast into Hell, San Brizio Chapel in the Cathedral in Orvieto