Edward Burne-Jones executed several works on the theme of Cupid's Hunting Fields : the Art Institute of Chicago keeps a watercolor from 1885 and the Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, has an oil on panel on a gesso preparation, from 1880. Our drawing, with a naked Cupid, is probably a study for the 1885 version. Sotheby's 2017
The standing figure has its legs fairly closed, which does not allow for the maiden's head to be seen through, as in the finished works, it therefore dates from the early phase of the work's conception c 1880. A development of this pose exists in a drawing held in the Birmingham Museum and Art gallery ACCESSION NUMBER: 1952P5.16 Another study of this figure is held in the Fitzwilliam Museum Acc no PD1002F.2