At this date Burne-Jones was working on designs for the woodcuts for the Cupid and Psyche story in William Morris's Earthly Paradise, and many of theses are arrangements of two figures within the rectangle, this in turn influenced the designs for stained glass he was working on at the time , for example the east window in St John's Church, Torquay. In this window the outer lights show pairs of Angels playing musical instruments. Although similar to Albert Moore's studies, the draperies are of a heavier material. The pairings could be interpreted as male playing the stringed instrument with a female accompanying.
These studies are examples of a series of drawings in the chalk dating from the mid to late 1860s. All show groups of figures wearing pseudo-classical drapes but unrelated to any specific subject. In this respect, Burne-Jones comes close to James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) and Albert Moore (1841-1893) who both made drawings in this style. Burne-Jones continued to use similar subjects well into the 1880s, a great example from around 1885 is referred to as 'Flora' (Yale Center for British Art). Presented by T Williams, 1935.