This sheet of hand studies was executed in preparation for Burne-Jones’s monumental oil painting, The Mill (Victoria & Albert Museum, London), begun by the artist in 1870 and worked on intermittently until 1882, when it was exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery. The interlacing hands in the present drawing refer to the clasped hands of the three young women who dance together to the music played by the figure to the far right of the composition. The Mill was one of the artist’s non-narrative works, focusing on the symbolic and evocative powers of music. This sheet was owned by Xavier de Salas Bosch, a prominent Spanish art historian and Director of the Museo del Prado during the 1970s. He gave this work as a gift to his friend Manuel de Arpe, a restorer at the Museum, in 1973, as a memorial to their friendship.