Taking his subject matter from Christian legend, Burne-Jones shows St George and the pagan princess Sabra file past a large crowd in a triumphal procession right to left. In this final episode of the legend the dragon is slain, the princess liberated and converted, but the artist has depicted all figures with demure and dreamy expressions. Together with the narrow frieze-like composition, stylized forms and muted colours this deliberately heightens an early-symbolist intensity and unease of the scene.

In the mid-1860s Burne-Jones painted seven canvases illustrating the story of St George for the dining-room of the artist Myles Birket Foster's house in Surrey. William Morris and Dante Gabriel Rossetti also worked there. Nearly thirty years later, the series was sold and Burne-Jones largely re-painted it. The paintings went on an international exhibition tour and won a gold medal at the Seventh International Art Exhibition in Munich.