The Remorse of Nero after the Murder of his Mother, a product of Waterhouse's early 'Alma-Tadema' phase, was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1878 (no.547). For a colour reproduction, see Anthony Hobson, J.W. Waterhouse, 1989, p.26, pl.16.

This drawing is not a study for the picture but a pen and ink record of the finished work, made by the artist for the small engraving in Henry Blackburn's Royal Academy Notes. According to Hobson (op.cit, 1980, p.199, no.370), Waterhouse exhibited a sepia version of the subject at the Dudley Gallery in 1876, but as this was two years before the oil painting appeared at the Academy, it was presumably a preliminary study.