Red, black and white chalk drawing on paper, Study of a Girl in a Dress with Puffed Sleeves by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (Birmingham 1833 - London 1898), signed with initials and dated, lower right: EB-J1866. A half-length portrait of a girl in profile, looking over right shoulder, with short curly hair, wearing white puff sleeved dress and holding a willow branch. Th is drawing shows the obvious debt of the artist to the Renaissance, for example Palma Vecchio's Portrait of a Poet, circa 1516, now in the National Gallery, London. Both use the symbol of the bay leaf, probably used here, as an evergreen, as a symbol of virtue. Drawing was both a great pleasure and an essential discipline for Burne-Jones throughout his career. This is one of five fine drawings (all from Miss Crawshay's collection) in the chalk technique characteristic of Burne-Jones's work of the mid-1860s. He used it both for figure studies for paintings such as those for Green Summer of c.1864 (Birmingham Art Gallery) and in signed finished presentation drawings such as this, in what Stephen Wildman describes as "this style of soft chalk on fairly heavy paper, which gives a rich grainy texture to shadows and background." The drawing also reflects Burne-Jones' growing interest in Italian Renaissance and classical art, especially after his second visit to Italy in 1862. The dress resembles the costume seen in some Renaissance pictures, and reflects the interest in decoratively-patterned folds of drapery characteristic of his later work.
Rossetti letter to Madox Brown 23 January 1869: Poor Ned's affairs have come to a smash altogether, and he and Topsy, after the most dreadful to-do, started for Rome suddenly, leaving the Greek damsel beating up the quarters of all his friends for him and howling like Cassandra. Georgie stayed behind. I hear to-day however that Top and Ned got no further than Dover, Ned being so dreadfully ill that they will probably have to return to London.
In January 1869 his wife Georgina found a letter from Maria in his clothing and Burne-Jones reluctantly ended the affair.