Strudwick was a studio assistant to Burne-Jones in the mid 1870s. This study was for Strudwick's own later painting Acrasia, shown at the first New Gallery exhibition in 1888 when Strudwick had established himself as an independent artist. The subject is taken from Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queen, in which the sorceress Acrasia seduces and ensnares a knight in her Bower of Bliss. The enchanted garden of temptations is surrounded by melodious sound, a trope typical of Aestheticism: 'there consorted in one harmonee/Birds, voyces, instruments, windes, waters, all agree.'

The influence of Burne-Jones and his Briar Rose series is very much visible in Acrasia, particularly in the foliage, 'painted with the most minute elaboration', as The Graphic noted. It's likely that Strudwick had learnt to make drawings of briars from life, such as this, from Burne-Jones, who at the time was working on the last iteration of the Briar Rose series (Buscot Park). Here, each leaf, sprig and stem is delicately drawn.