This is one of two nude studies in the collection which had previously been incorrectly identified as figures for the central panel of the incomplete triptych 'The Seeds and Fruits of English Poetry' (see also 1906P776). They are almost certainly the two studies Brown made on 14 October 1847. In his diary he records that 'Miss Chamberlayne came. Worked well till 4 in spite of her talking propensities. Made outlines of the nude of the two figures of 'Muses of impassioned & satirical poetry' (Virginia Surtees, ed., 'The Diary of Ford Madox Brown,' p. 10). The female figures in these two studies can be seen more clearly in the pen and ink study for the right side of the triptych at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Both figures sit in the top right spandrel wearing long, draped robes, and laurel wreaths on their heads. The right figure sits with her right elbow resting on the decorative architecture and her finger resting on her chin. In her other hand she holds a lyre. The left muse sits with her left knee raised. Her right hand rests on the uplifted knee whilst she holds a lyre with her left hand. The two studies of nude females at BMAG correlate almost exactly to the figures in the Ashmolean drawing. Their legs are positioned to sit either side of the architecture and in this outline for the right muse Brown has faintly drawn in a lyre. Brown's inspiration for the muses may well have been the sibyls on the Sistine Chapel which he is likely to have seen when he lived in Rome in the mid-1840s. LM

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