Inscribed verso in a later hand: "Henry Holiday 1839-1927" The drawing was purchased along with a study for Aglaia by Henry Holiday (Exhibited: Christopher Powney & Julian Hartnoll "English Figure Drawings" 27 February (16 March 1979, no.58), hence the misattribution of the present drawing to Henry Holiday. The study is for the figure of the female attendant holding a crown, centre right, in Burne-Jones’s large canvas "The Sleep of Arthur in Avalon" (Ponce Museum of Art, Puerto Rico). The drawing was reproduced in Hartnoll & Eyre Ltd’s Catalogue Thirty Three (1973), as Cat no.7, where a date of c1895 was suggested. A "Study of a Queen", offered for sale at Christie’s, London on 25 March 1910, Lot 6, may also be the present drawing.
On Rust coloured paper. Study for the Queen standing behind the recumbent figure of King Arthur, holding his crown. In the final oil painting, the position of the crown is altered