Executed less than a month after the wedding of Ford Madox Brown and Emma Hill on 5 April 1853, the drawing shows a rather apprehensive looking Emma with deep shadow cast by the lamp-light around her face. It remained in Brown's possession for the rest of his life. Rossetti, along with Thomas Seddon, had been a witness at the wedding. Emma came from a poor farming background, but had already modelled for her future husband's paintings 'The Last of England' and 'The Pretty Baa-Lambs'. Here Rossetti controls his use of the pen to capture a closely-observed appearance that is more about realism than flattery. He had been a pupil of Madox Brown in 1848.