Burne-Jones painted a version Danae based upon the illustration to The Earthly Paradise, for William Graham and finished it in 1872. Typically not wishing this to be his final statement on the subject, Burne-Jones continued developing the idea which eventually resulted in the large painting now in Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow. The present drawing which dates from c.1874 illustrates how the artist concentrated on particular details in order to develop a more complex understanding of the narrative in the process of making a more sophisticated painting.