Burne-Jones's designs Poesis and Musica are associated with his support of the School of Art Needlework, which opened in 1872 (in 1875 it became the Royal School of Art Needlework and in 1922 the name was shortened to the Royal School of Needlework). Through its foundress, the artist's friend Madeline Wyndham, Burne-Jones provided two the designs to be worked in outline with brown crewel on linen. The needleworks proved both successful and popular.
The Carl Laszlo collection, Basle
Fiona MacCarthy, The Last of the Pre-Raphaelites: Burne-Jones and the Victorian Imagination, Faber & Faber, London 2012, page 325: The Wyndhams had been at the forefront of the founding of the Royal School of Needlework in London, for which Burne-Jones supplied designs. Two of these, Poesis and Musica, were originally intended as portières worked by the students in brown crewel on linen. The Wyndhams acquired the cartoons for both these designs, which Burne-Jones then worked up in colour.