A companion piece showing the Virgin's death was planned, but never begun. This partly explains the tall narrow shape of the picture, which was intended as part of a diptych. Rossetti intentionally restricted his palette almost entirely to white and the three primaries. The colour blue, symbolic of heaven, is traditionally associated with the Virgin and red symbolises the blood of Christ. Rossetti even sought a red-haired model for the Virgin's head. The composition is carefully thought out: the vertical division of space, made by the blue hanging and the edge of the bed, falls almost on the Golden Section. The dove and the lily, with one bud still to break, move across this division and are the instruments of conception. Rossetti has written the date, 'March', at the bottom of the canvas, perhaps to signify the month in which the Feast of the Immaculate Conception is held. The original frame was also inscribed with Latin mottoes, copied from a brass rubbing owned by a fellow member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, F. G. Stephens (1828–1907).

The picture was exhibited at the National Institution in 1850 and heavily criticised, partly for its didacticism. The critic for the Athenaeum wrote that it was 'a work evidently thrust by the artist into the eye of the spectator more with the presumption of a teacher than in the modesty of a hopeful and true aspiration after excellence.' (20 April 1850, p.424) Rossetti vowed never to exhibit in public again, but he continued to work on his picture until 1853, when it was sold to Francis McCracken of Belfast, an early patron of the Pre-Raphaelites, for £50.

Further reading: Leslie Parris (ed.), 'The Pre-Raphaelites', London 1984, reprinted 1994, pp.72–73; reproduced p.72, in colour. Elizabeth Prettejohn, 'The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites', London 2000, pp.50–51, reproduced p.50, in colour. Virginia Surtees, 'The Paintings and Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) - A Catalogue Raisonné', 2 vols., Oxford 1971, pp.12–13, no.44, reproduced pl.29. Frances Fowle December 2000