This sensitive drawing is hardly a study, but more a work of art in its own right. The artist has obviously reacted to the beauty of the sitter, at present unknown. Another study for the same figure is held in the Whitworth Art Gallery collections Acc. no. D.1960.72, which in comparison reveals a much more perfunctory purpose, which emphasizes the quality of the present drawing. Burne-Jones's interest in the pair of figures to the far left in The Sleep of Arthur in Avalon resulted in a number of preparatory studies, it sheds light on how important each facet of the painting was to him and how it was a summation of his life's work and philosophy. The figure in the final painting is unfinished, but evident in the conversion from life study into paint are the requirements of the medium. The artist's method was to build up layers of paint and to superimpose the detail on the final surface, but in its unfinished state the lack of detail distances it from the present drawing. However the drawing in the Whitworth collection shows an intermediary stage.