Whilst living in Paris in 1842 Brown painted 'Parisina's Sleep,' a subject taken from a poem by Lord Byron. This is one of the studies he made for the head of Parisina, who is having an affair with her husband Prince Azo's illegitimate son Hugo. Although Brown studied in Belgium and lived in Paris he insisted in his 1865 one-man exhibition that the painting was inspired by Spanish art and Rembrandt. This study gives a glimpse of these influences in the touches of white chalk adding dramatic lighting to the scene.