The rich colours, the emphasis on pattern and details such as the illuminated missal reveal where Morris's true talents lay. He was less at home with figure painting than with illumination, embroidery and woodcarving, and he struggled for months on this picture. He worked for much of the time at 17, Red Lion Square, the rooms he shared with Edward Burne-Jones. Many of the furnishings such as the Turkish rug, Persian embroidered cover and whitework hangings on the bed were probably in Morris's personal collection. The background panel is close in style to the heavy tapestries designed by Morris for Red Lion Square and the table cover is of the type taken as a model by Morris and Webb for the firm's church furnishings.

In 1874 the picture was claimed as his own by Ford Madox Brown's son Oliver. Rossetti, who had a great fondness for Jane Burden, offered him £20 for it as 'an early portrait of its original, of whom I have made so many studies myself' (quoted in Parry, p.103). The picture eventually passed to Rossetti's brother, William Michael. It lay forgotten in a cupboard until Rossetti's death, when it was returned to Jane Burden.

Further reading: Joanna Banham and Jennifer Harris (eds), 'William Morris and the Middle Ages', exhibition catalogue, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester 1984, pp.114–116, reproduced pl.IV, in colour. Leslie Parris (ed.), 'The Pre-Raphaelites', exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1984, reprinted 1994, pp.169–170; reproduced p.169. Linda Parry (ed.), 'William Morris', exhibition catalogue, Victoria and Albert Museum, London 1996, pp.102–103, reproduced p.89, in colour. Frances Fowle December 2000