This portrait of the elder daughter of Mrs Gaskell (see no. 244 [Burne-Jones 1975]) was one of several pictires discussed by the French critic Robert de la Sizeranne in his book on contemporary English painting published in 1895. When exhibited at the New Gallery in 1894, he wrote, even the most obstinate were forced to admire it. 'Faux de ton, faux d'effet, épais de facture, mais merveilleusement modelé sous sa blancheur mate, il donnait l'impression d'un beau portrait de M. Herbert: on maudit la maniere, on s'incline devant la resultat.' De la Sizeranne had recently visited Burne-Jones in London and his book reflects a widespread interest in the artist's work in France at this time.
The young Picasso’s attraction to Burne-Jones is occasionally mentioned in passing but rarely discussed in depth; as Andrew Wilton and Robert Upstone rightly point out, echoes of this fascination, possibly spurred by seeing Burne-Jones’s work in the flesh at the Exposition, can be traced in the pale profiles and all-pervading blue atmosphere of some of his Blue Period portraits.8 8 Wilton and Upstone (1997), pp. 32-33, 272