The top two studies are for the left hand and right arm of the mother in the small painting 'The Infant's Repast' (see 1906P678 and 1906P679). The bottom study of a pair of outstretched hands is for the figure of Cordelia in 'Lear and Cordelia' (1848-49, oil on canvas, Tate, London), a painting he was working on at the same time. On 15 January, 1849 Brown recorded in his diary that the model 'Miss Stone' had sat for him and he had drawn 'two hands for Cordelia, & painted sleeve of dress in little picture ['The Infant's Repast'] from Mrs A[shley]' (Virginia Surtees, ed., 'The Diary of Ford Madox Brown,' p. 56). These hand studies may have been made from the arms of his model, and later wife, Emma Hill as Theresa Newman and Ray Watkinson believe she was using her mother's maiden name, Stone, in 1849 ('Ford Madox Brown and the Pre-Raphaelite Circle,' p. 45). However, according to his diary he was also using Mrs Ashley as a model for 'Lear and Cordelia' and it is unclear which of them posed for the hand studies.
LM