This dramatic study was made in preparation for one of Burne-Jones' most important and beautiful series of pictures, depicting Charles Perrault's story of Sleeping Beauty, entitled The Briar Rose (Buscot Park, Oxfordshire) painted over at least twenty years from 1870. It is study for the armoured knight, who is approaching the garrison of sleeping soldiers on the outskirts of the King's palace in The Briar Wood. Although Burne-Jones revised and began afresh versions of the other three main scenes from the Briar Rose series, The Briar Wood was completed to the artist's satisfaction in 1885. However it is notoriously difficult to date Burne-Jones' pictures as the dates were often added many years after the pictures were executed when the artist was reliant on his (often inaccurate) memory. However it is possible to speculate when this study may have been made. It probably dates to the mid-1870s around the time that Burne-Jones painted an elaborate study for the sleeping knights in The Briar Wood (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool). Like the Liverpool picture Burne-Jones painted the figure of the Prince nude, demonstrating the artist's meticulous working method. Sotheby's 2014
The model for this study is not that found in the final painting. The pose relates to the final version but the thicker set, muscular model is of a type the artist preferred during the 1870s and early 1880s. The Byzantine elegance which the knight in the final version represents is typical of the 1890s, which would place the date of this study to c 1880. Burne-Jones went on to reject this model in favour of a more slender refined figure. This study reveals the transition in Burne-Jones's re-appraisal of the Knight's psychology upon entering the Briar wood and what he finds there.