Study of a girl's head, looking up to right

The drawing would appear to be a study for a figure composition rather than an independent work of art, but no head to which it might be related has so far been identified among either Burne-Jones's paintings or decorative designs of the mid-1870s. This was the period which he described as 'the seven blissfullest years of work that I ever had', when he worked in comparative isolation, relying for support on a few enthusiastic patrons and seldom exhibiting. The phase began in 1870, when he resigned from the Old Water-Colour Society after objections were raised to the male nude in Phyllis and Demophoön (Birmingham), and ended in 1877 when his work was dramatically revealed at the opening of the Grosvenor Gallery that spring.