Before embarking on his final career as a designer and writer, Morris completed one oil painting, a portrait of his future wife Jane Burden as 'La Belle Iseult' (Tate Gallery, London), and began another, also on the Arthurian theme of Tristram and Iseult.

As described by Stephen Wildman, the two or three major figures against a background, perhaps including the mast and rigging of a ship, might suggest a treatment of Malory's 'Mort d'Arthur' in which Tristram accompanies Iseult on the voyage to Cornwall, where she is to marry King Mark.