The drawing is a study for one of the sleeping courtiers in The Council Chamber, the second of the four scenes known as The Legend of the Briar Rose (Buscot Park, Oxfordshire) which Burne-Jones completed in 1890. It probably dates from 1888 when, according to his work-record, he 'redrew and designed the sleeping King, the second of the Briar Rose pictures', developing the subject from the scene in the so-called 'small' Briar Rose series (Ponce, Puerto Rico), painted 1871-3. The drawing's style confirms this dating.

It is curious that the figure is in the reverse direction both in the small painting and the Buscot version; possibly Burne-Jones was considering quite radical compositional charges at this stage