During the 1850s Dyce became one of the few established artists to respond creatively to the aesthetic challenges presented by the young Pre-Raphaelites, and also to their hero-worship of Shakespeare. For this enormous illustration of Act III of ‘King Lear’ (an exceptional choice of subject for Dyce) he adopted the brilliant palette and meticulous figure drawing of the Pre-Raphaelites. Like Holman Hunt and Millais, he attempted to integrate figures painted in the studio into a landscape setting which was almost certainly worked up from sketches made outside.