The central figure—the tallest and furthest forward of the three—seems to be the visual focus and is framed by the auxiliary figures, who support a wreath above her head with their extended, inner arms.

The central figure's dress has a tassel hanging off a fold on the front left, and the top completely covers her chest but leaves her arms bare.

The sculpture seems most probably to be based on a tempera painting and a gesso relief of the same scene, The Three Graces and Venus Dancing Before Mars, both by Antonio Canova.

[4] Not only are the poses and outfits remarkably similar to those on the statue, but it is also a fairly unusual design among representations of the Graces up to that time.

Canova's painting and the IMA's sculpture conform to many of the goddesses’ traditional iconographic features, such as the flat composition and the intimate physical contact between them (here illustrated by the linked hands, closeness of the bodies, and the seemingly imminent placement of the wreath).

Canova produced a notable sculpture of the Graces, but his figures are in the nude, breaking with tradition by arranging the group in a triangle to allow a three-way embrace.

To date there has been no confirmation that Antonio Frilli was connected to the production of the IMA Graces; there are several similar studios throughout Italy that might be responsible for such reproductions.

[3] The exact date and circumstances of acquisition of the sculpture by the Oldfields estate are unknown, but it was documented in the designs of Percival Gallagher.

The dark evergreens surrounding it, originally intended to set off the bright white of the marble, are now overgrown and partially block both the sunlight and the view of the sculpture.

An early photo, taken when the hemlocks were still quite young, shows the sculpture resting on the rectangular concrete slab but without the limestone pedestal, which was added in a re-design of the space by Gallagher in 1925.

The simple design implemented using only the Graces may have been a cost-saving measure or a rejection of the grandiosity of the architectural plans, but it did not compensate for the relative size, and the sculpture was probably then considered unsatisfactorily small for its location.