Studies for 'Apollo and Daphne' and another composition (recto); and Study for 'Gather Ye Rosebuds while Ye May' (verso)

The man's head in profile to left on the recto is clearly a study for Apollo in Apollo and Daphne (Trippi, pl. 166), exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1908. The composition sketch below, in which a young woman seems to be offering her knight a rose, is perhaps an illustration to Chaucer's Romance of the Rose. This poem also inspired Waterhouse's painting The Soul of the Rose (Trippi, pl. 169), which appeared at the RA the same year.

The rough sketch on the verso is for Gather Ye Rosebuds while Ye May (Trippi, pl.168), and seems to have been made to clarify the relationship of the girl's head to the reflections in the mirror behind her. This picture, which was yet another of Waterhouse's RA exhibits in 1908, was sold in these Rooms on 11 June 2003, lot 6.