This study (below) was one of 10 drawings by Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-98) consigned by an unidentified charitable trust to Bonhams’ 19th Century European, Victorian and British Impressionist Art sale.
The 12 x 13in (32 x 33cm) white and black chalk drawing, showing the top head and shoulders, is a compositional study for the sleeping figure of a knight seen in the final version of The Prince Enters the Briar Wood (1870-90). Part of the four-panel Briar Rose series, it was shown at the Tate’s acclaimed exhibition on the painter that closed recently in London.