A study for lot 121, but evidently regarded by the artist as a semi-independent work of art since he exhibited it at the New Gallery in 1888, the same year that the finished work appeared at the Royal Academy. This enabled the Illustrated London News to compare them, to the advantage and disadvantage of both. 'The sketch shows how much that picture (i.e. the large version) has been changed for the better as it progressed, and it also shows how far in poetic fancy .., even in its improved form, it fails.'

The sketch belonged to Malcolm Aird while his father, Sir John Aird, owned the finished picture.