Jane Burden (1839-1914) first met the Pre-Raphaelites William Morris, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Edward Burne-Jones in 1857, when they were working together on the Oxford Union murals. She became Rossetti's main inspiration and the model for much of his later work. In 1859, one year before Rossetti made this portrait, she married William Morris. -- Exhibition Label, from "Life Lines: Portrait Drawings from Dürer to Picasso."
Dated in pencil at lower left, "1860".
Kern, Jerome, 1885-1945, former owner.
Pierpont Morgan Library. Review of Acquisitions, 1949-1968. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1969, p. 165.
Adams, Frederick B., Jr., comp. Eleventh Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1961. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1961, p. 96-97.