These studies both relate to the figure of the seated musician on the left in Burne-Jones’ unfinished swan-song The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon (Ponce Museum of Art, Puerto Rico). In the painting King Arthur is eternally sleeping in a mystical landscape surrounded by queens, female warriors and musicians who attend him until a time when a call to arms will summon him to wake. Burne-Jones favoured tinted paper for some of the many studies for this painting as it allowed him to represent the highlights and shadows of the drapery folds. Sotheby's 2016
Study for an attendant playing a musical instrument, seated at the side of sleeping Arthur wearing an orange robe, also studies for the sleeve of the adjacent figure playing a similar instrument depicted in the finished work wearing green.