Based in Sussex, Burleigh was known for painting in egg tempera with the subject usually involving a central figure.

[5] A sharp luminosity and strong sense of design govern Burleigh's tempera and watercolour paintings.

[4] Frequently, her works portray decorative renaissance subjects, usually dominated by a female figure who is regularly modelled on her daughter, Veronica Burleigh.

This colour palette, along with Burleigh's use of flowing lines and bird, butterfly, and flower motifs, have led Helen Haworth to consider her "delicate watercolours more appropriate to a fairy-tale than Keats".

[7] Kostas Boyiopoulus however, proposes that this statement does not take into account Burleigh's illustrations to Keats' ballad, "La Belle Dame sans Merci" which Boyiopoulus has described as a "nightmare" due to Burleigh's "faery's child" metamorphosing into a femme fatale.

[7] The male warriors and rulers are strung up in trees, completely defenceless, a dystopian vision of masculinity on the eve of modern warfare.

[7] What's more, the arabesque Art Nouveau pattern on the belle dame's dress presents the female antagonist as "current".

[5] The model is likely to have been Burleigh's daughter Veronica, while the flowers and medieval city are figments of the artist's imagination.