Because of its title, the painting has been assumed to relate to Helen Mary Gaskell, Burne-Jones's muse of the 1890s. However stylistically, the painting can be dated to the mid to late 1870s, some dozen or so years before he met Mrs Gaskell. The animated curvi-linear motion in the depiction of hair, first evident in Phyllis and Dermophoon (1870), Desiderium (1873) and persisted through to The Tree of Forgiveness in 1881 is justification for dating this painting to the 1870s. It is unlikely, as Gordon Bottomley thought, to relate to Helen of Troy and the Troy Triptych because of the marine subject matter. The features closely resemble those of Frances Graham.