The figure comes from Burne-Jones' large painting The Golden Stairs, and Christopher Wood identifies the sitter as May Morris (Burne-Jones, The Life and Works of Sir Edward Burne-Jones 1833-1898, London, 1898, pp. 88-89). The Royal School of Art Needlework made a number of Burne-Jones designs in embroidery, the embroideresses adapting the designs from the original paintings. In this case, the original background of stairs has been replaced by stone masonry. In the archives of the Royal School of Needlework there is a watercolour drawing of this panel, as seen at left, and manuscript 164 (a catalogue of work executed at the school before 1907) records: 'Four panels taken from Burne-Jones: The Golden Stairs embroidered at the Royal School of Art Needlework by Mrs. Hornby Lewis'. Mrs. Hornby Lewis may have embroidered this for her house, Medmenham Manor, Buckinghamshire. Christopher Wood identifies the figure, central within Burne-Jones' celebrated painting, as May Morris