After Burne-Jones' 1884 painting "King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid" was a great success at the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris, "Love Among the Ruins" was loaned for exhibition at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1893. While back in Paris, the prominent label warning that it was a watercolour and so susceptible to water damage was ignored, and an egg white wash was applied at the Goupil Gallery as a temporary varnish while the painting was being prepared for reproduction in photogravure.