The subject is taken from D.G. Rosetti's poem 'My Father's Close', translated from the old French, which appeared in his 'Poems', 1870. Christian suggests a date of c.1875. According to an inscription on the verso, the painting was given by Fairfax Murray to W.S. Spanton in May 1882. Fairfax Murray also gave Spanton the 1870 volume of Rossetti's poems, which he and his wife had particularly enjoyed (W.S. Spanton, 'An Art Student and his Teachers in the Sixties', London, 1927, pp.84, 101). Fairfax Murray was working in the Rossetti workshop in 1869-70.
