Probably drawn circa 1794, when, encouraged by William Hayley, who had begun to write a Life of Milton, Romney was working on several subjects from the poet. A larger pen and wash drawing on this theme is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, P. Jaffé, Drawings by George Romney, Cambridge, 1977, no. 114, pl. 53. Many other studies for the composition are known, some reproduced in the exhibition catalogue, Morton Morris and Christopher Powney, Drawings by George Romney, 1980, no. 64ff.