This head study was used in the two versions of the 'Car of Love' or 'Love's Wayfaring', both of which are unfinished. A charcoal version (c. 1871) in the Falmouth Art Gallery, a compositional study in pencil (c.1898) and the large oil on canvas both in the V & A (begun 1872).

Two full length male nude studies for the 'Car of Love' (both c. 1888) were previously sold by Peter Nahum at the Leicester Galleries, London (both are now in Private Collections), but neither are as fully realised as this head study.