This fine portrait study is stylistically similar to the artist's well-known portrait of the Polish pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941), ca. 1890, in the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw (Wood 1907, pl. XLV). Two additional studies made by Burne-Jones for his Holy Grail tapestries, both dating 1893, are also stylistic akin to this sheet (Wood 1907, pls. XXI and XXII). In the McCrindle sheet, Burne-Jones delicately portrays the figure in a three-quarter view, donning a toque-shaped cap reminiscent of the red bereta commonly seen Italian Renaissance portraits. Works cited: T. Martin Wood, Drawings of Sir Edward Burne-Jones (London: George Newnes Ltd; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907).
Inscribed on recto at lower right, in graphite, "31.10" and "10".
McCrindle, Joseph F., former owner.