See attached document The subject is from The Earthly Paradise: 'Laurence prevented by Venus from joining his bride'. Julian Hartnoll had ascribed this and another similarly mounted drawing to Burne-Jones’s studio assistant Charles Fairfax Murray, stating that other drawings mounted on the same blue backing paper were almost always by him. It seems more likely that the drawing is by Burne-Jones, but had been acquired by Charles Fairfax Murray. The drawing had previously been offered for sale at Sotheby’s Belgravia on 20 March 1979, Lot 10, as A Study for Pygmalion and the Image by Burne-Jones. This attribution is supported when comparing the drawing with similar studies by Burne-Jones. The composition is repeated in a sheet of Figures embracing in Auckland Art Gallery (Accession no.1955/23/4).
This drawing represents the moment when Venus claims Laurence, as a result of his having placed a ring on the finger of her statue, in the January Episode of Morris' Earthly Paradise.