Beginning in the md-1860s with a design for The Earthly Paradise, this group of four maidens shows how far the artist has moved away a reliance upon narrative into an intimate interior world far removed from nature. His interest in this drawing is in the creation of movement and atmosphere. The drapery flows lightly and the elegant maidens gaze into a distance, upon which the viewer can only speculate. The mood of the work would seem to ally the artist with the continental Symbolists. Drawings such as this were the reason why Burne-Jones was invited to exhibit with Les XX and with the exhibitions of Sar Peladan and the Salon de la Rose + Croix.