A sibyl

Meteyard was a pupil at the Birmingham School of Art, and was recruited onto the staff in 1886, where he taught applied design, gesso, leather work, enamels and stained glass. It was here that he may have come into contact with Burne-Jones, the main influence on his work and his choice of subject matter. It has been suggested that the sitter in the present drawing is Kate Eadie, Meteyard's wife and former pupil, with whom he collaborated on enamel plaques and other decorative art commissions. She was used by Meteyard as the sitter for his masterpiece 'I am Half-Sick of Shadows', an illustration to Tennyson's Lady of Shalott; see The Last Romantics, exh. Barbican Art Gallery, London, 1989, cat. p. 110-11, no. 86.