This fragment of an unfinished oil painting of the subject dates from c 1872. The series of designs from the story of Orpheus and Eurydice were begun in the mid 1860s, and hitherto a projected oil version of the subject is unknown. The model here appears to bear a resemblance to Maria Zambaco which suggests that the painting would have had a auto-biographcial significance like Phyllis and Dermaphoon. It's abandonment is extremely telling of the instability of the relationship at this date,