The Blessed Damozel (first sketch for background)

The study is a good example of DGR's later drawing style—far more finished and elaborated than the brilliantly dynamic work he produced (mainly) in the 1850s. It is perhaps significant that DGR gave this work to Jane Morris, who stands behind all of The Blessed Damozel pictures even while Alexa Wilding is the explicit model for the damozel.

This finished study was completed at the time DGR began work on the oil painting commissioned by Graham.

Both Marillier and Hodgson, two of the earliest commentators, were impressed with this finished study, and it has retained its reputation.

• Ash, Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
• Benedetti, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 320.
• Hodgson, Fifty Years of British Art, 45-46.
• Marillier, DGR: An Illustrated Memorial , 189.
• Paintings and Drawings of the Pre-Raphaelites, 89.
• Surtees, A Catalogue Raisonné , vol. 1, 143 (no. 244G).
• Surtees, A Catalogue Raisonné , vol. 2 (plate 360).