Galatea was the sculpture in Ovid's legend of Pygmalion that was transformed into a living woman through the intervention of the goddess Venus. The Hand Refrains was the second in a series of four oil paintings by Burne-Jones. They were each derived from proposed illustrations to William Morris's retelling of the story in The Earthly Paradise. The paintings were titled by Morris, the others being The Heart Desires, The Godhead Fires and The Soul Attains. Burne-Jones made two versions of the series. This drawing relates to the earlier one made for Euphrosyne Cassavetti, mother of Maria Zambaco, a leading light in London's Greek community to whom he was romantically attached. Although classical in feeling, it appears to have been drawn from life.