This work is part of a set of four drawings attributed to Rosa Corder after stained glass windows by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The head of St George is said to have been modelled on Charles Augustus Howell (1840-90), a controversial figure with the Pre-Raphaelite circle.

Corder was an associate and mistress of Howell from 1873, who is considered by many to have been a forger of Rossetti as well as Fuseli drawings.

In a letter of 22 March 1876, Rossetti writes to Howell: 'You borrowed a set of drawings of St. George and the Dragon to copy - for your own use only. Please return them to Chelsea at once.' (C. L. Cline (ed.), The Owl and the Rossettis: Letters of Charles A. Howell and Dante Gabriel, Christina, and William Michael Rosestti, Pennysylvania University State Press, 1978, letter 461). Rossetti wrote to Theodore Watts-Dunton on 11 February 1878 that 'He [Howell] has of mine five cartoons of St. George...' (Doughty and Wahl (ed.), Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, vol. iv, 1967, letter 1885).