Burne-Jones returned to the theme of Hope several times throughout his career. In 1871, the artist designed the windows for Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford, depicting the Christian virtues of Hope, Charity and Faith, and he worked all three designs up into large watercolours later in the same year. In 1896, he painted a large oil version of the 1871 watercolour for Mrs George Marston Whitin of Whitinsville, Massachusetts. The finished oil closely replicates the figure from the earlier watercolour, however, he situates the figure of Hope in a cell with barred windows, her ankle is chained, yet she looks up to the top corner and her hand is outstretched. Both the watercolour and oil employ the symbolic properties of flowers; periwinkles grow through the floor, attributes for those condemned to death. The figure also holds apple blossom in her arms, which is symbolic of new life. In the present study, Burne-Jones captures the tilted head and upturned gaze of the girl, turned to the sky to signify the hope promised in the title.
This drawing is a study for the head of the allegorical figure of Hope, painted in 1896 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). This composition, in which a girl is seen standing in a prison cell, chained by the ankles but reaching up to the sky which has miraculously penetrated the heavily barred window, was conceived in 1871 for a stained-glass window in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. A watercolour version (Dunedin Art Gallery, New Zealand), followed, being one of four pictures of the Virtues which Burne-Jones showed at the inaugural exhibition at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1877. There is also a related watercolour entitled If Hope Were Not, Heart Should Break (sold in these rooms, 14 July 2016, lot 16). Sotheby's December 2019