A study for the statue (Galatea) in The Hand Refrains, the second in the 'Pygmalion' series. Based on designs made for William Morris's Earthly Paradise in 1867, the painting exists in two versions, the well-known large set in the Birmingham City Art Gallery, which were exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1879, and a smaller set, dated 1868-70, in a private collection.

There are differences between the study and the figure as it appears in the painting. In the painting the head is at a different angle and the forms of the body generally are smoothed and refined