The original drawing was held in the collections of the Musee Jeu de Paumes, Paris in the mid- 1970s. The drawing goes beyond Burne-Jones's normal functional studies. Having encountered drawings by Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he here aspired to make a comparable essay for exhibition. In the Winter of 1880 at the Governor Gallery, Burne-Jones showed more than fifty five drawings which possibly included the original of this platinotype. He was fully aware of his ability and wished to demonstrate this to a wider public and to the critics who accused him earlier in his career, of inaccurate drawing.