This is Burne-Jones's first version of The Mirror of Venus, painted between 1867-77; the second, now in the Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, was started in 1873. Both were completed at the same date. The idea for the subject evolved from his illustrations to William Morris's Earthly Paradise (published 1868-70), sketches for which are now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and the Tate Gallery, London. The background is taken from Italian Renaissance painting in substitution for the generalised woods in the preparatory version. William Graham was Burne-Jones's most important early patron. He had collected an impressive group of Italian Old Master paintings and possessed the most discerning `eye' of all the Pre-Raphaelite patrons. Any work from his collection is considered to be of the finest quality. Fitzwilliam work list for 1867 states "Venus Mirror in oils" and for 1877 "Finished large Venus Mirror - Leyland, Finished the small Venus Mirror - Graham" An preparatory composition in oil with the figures nude was made c1866. The Poet Dreams a Dream - and lave my face in the refreshing waters there; and as I bent, I saw the river floor - Le Roman de la Rose MS. Douce 195 ff. ii + 156 Bequeathed by Douce to the Bodleian in 1834