An early work, executed during the period (1864-c.1870) when the artist was studying under Ford Madox Brown, whose influence is clearly present. This was also the time when Brown's own children were receiving instruction from their father (see lot ); indeed the article by William Michael Rossetti cited above is followed immediately by one on 'The Junior Madox Browns'. Rossetti described the present picture as the artist's 'most memorable' production to date, and continued: 'It represented two Greek girls on the outskirts of a wood at twilight, concocting their charm with a transfixed heart, and a pair of dead doves: an owl, whom Pallas Athene would not leave disowned, would be soon growing dismally wakeful in the thicket.' Rossetti also praised the picture's 'great poetic intensity' and the artist's 'fine power of fusing the emotion of her subject into its colour ... Miss Spartali reminds me in some respects of Lady Waterford as a colourist. Among the various women who have of late years painted in this country ... these are the two who have given a certain feminine status, and ... expression, to colour.'

The Greek subject is not of course accidental. The daughter of Michael Spartali, a wealthy merchant who acted as Greek consul-general in London 1866-82, Marie belonged to the Anglo-Greek community which figures so prominently in the annals of Victorian art. Beautiful as well as talented, she was a close friend of Marie Zambuco, for some years the mistress of Burne-Jones, and of Aglaia Coronio, née Ionides (see lot ), the trio being known in their circle as the 'Three Graces'.

For another picture from the Handley-Read collection, see lot .