Study for two draped females, for the painting "The Golden Stairs"

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Bt ARA (1833-1898)

c. 1888

Pencil on white paper

9 x 7 inches, 23 x 18 centimetres

"A study for the figure second from the right of the second row back in the picture. This drawing is a study for two of the figures at the foot of the stairs in Burne-Jones's larger canvas, The Golden Stairs (Tate Gallery, London), which he began in 1872 and exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1880. Burne-Jones used his favorite model at the time, the Italian Antonia Cavia, for all ther figure studies, although the heads in the final painting appear to have been studied from the beautiful young women in his circle whom he had made his confidants" — Waters, p. 60