Study for Cupid delivering Psyche shows Cupid running to left, in classical robes, a cloak flowing over his head to restore Psyche to life after she had opened the forbidden casket in Hades. Cream mount, green wash border, glazed in plain gilt frame. The subject is originally taken from The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius, a 2nd century Roman author which William Morris adapted in his poem, 'The Earthly Paradise' (1868-70). The goddess Venus was jealous of Psyche's beauty and constantly gave her hard tasks to follow. Here she had been returning from the underworld with a box for the goddess which, supposedly, contains some of Proserpine's beauty but overcome by curiosity she had opened the box which actually contained the sleep of Lethe and which has put her into a deathly trance. Cupid, her lover, comes to the rescue and awakens her by whispering, according to Morris: "Rise, Psyche, and be mine for evermore/ For evil is long tarrying on this shore." This drawing is for a design of one of the woodcuts for Morris's book but it was never published. Although over 120 designs were produced and 52 woodcuts for Cupid and Psyche completed, the project was abandoned by him. There exist other oil or gouache versions of this scene by Burne-Jones. Two initial designs for the woodcut are in Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery and there are painted versions at the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford,1867, Manchester Art Gallery, the Cecil French bequest to Hammersmith and Fulham and Sheffield Museums, 1870. The latter was formerly in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight and sold at by its Trustees at Christie's 6 June 1958 (99). The composition was later used as part of a frieze, now in Birmingham City Art Gallery, for 1 Palace Green, the London home of George Howard, which Burne-Jones painted from 1872-81. In 1876 Howard commissioned Walter Crane (1845-1915) to assist Burne-Jones with the completion of the frieze.