This drawing was formerly thought to have been a study for the central figure in Moore’s oil “Dreamers” (1882). It is in fact a preliminary study for a drawing, engraved on wood by W.J. Palmer, used to illustrate an edition of Milton’s “Ode on the Morning of Christ’s Nativity”, illustrated by eminent artists, published in London by James Nisbet & Co., 1868. The engraving, which appears on p.13 of the edition, illustrated the lines:
“Nature in awe to him
Had doff’d her gaudy trim,
With her great Master so to sympathise.”
The whereabouts of the finished drawing is not known; presumably it was executed in ink, resembling the drawing of “The Muses” (brush and Indian ink over red chalk and pencil, 12 1/2 x 7 1/8 in) which Moore did to illustrate the lines:
“And with your ninefold harmony
Make up full consort to the angelick symphony”
in Milton’s poem (now in the British Museum 1900-6-13-66)
