In this drawing, Edward Burne-Jones adopted a style influenced by the pattern-like forms of medieval art. The model's dress falls into angular folds at her feet, and the forms and shading are created from regular parallel pencil lines. Burne-Jones was the leader of the second wave of the Pre-Raphaelite movement.
The pose was made by one of the MacDonald sisters as a preliminary study for the Legend of Good Women, which was begun in 1862 for tiles and was developed into embroideries and stained glass. This drawing would appear to be intermediate between the tiles of 1864 and embroideries of 1864.