One of a number of studies in Birmingham's collection for the mourners who carry St Dorothea in the watercolour entitled 'Theophilus and the Angel'. Two versions of the painting were made, one was destroyed in the second world war (1863), the other (c.1866) was sold at Sotheby's in 2008.

Burne-Jones's difficulty in indicating physical weight is observed in the awkward pose of the mourner with raised shoulder, as he helps to carry the body of St Dorothea.