It has not been possible to identify the project related to these sketches. However, it is an interesting sheet of drawings because it allows further insight into Brown's working process. Intially Brown worked out the composition in pencil, going over and over the figures and landscape until it is almost impossible to see the deisgn. He then clarified the sketch by drawing over it in sepia ink. Having gone over a figure again and again, Brown found it necessary to redraw the figure of Venus separately on a clean section of the page. Other early sketches using this same technique can be seen on the reverse of sketches for 'King Lear ' also in the Birmingham collection(1906P754 and 1906P755).
LM