Hubert Robert (Paris 1733-1808)

Formed by placing a sheet of oiled paper over a fresh chalk drawing, a counterproof provided a means to record a composition but also the opportunity to develop and rework it. In the present drawing the underlying orange-coloured chalk and the hatching which runs from upper left to lower right ('mirrored' from the original drawing, which is no longer known) are the traces of the counterproof. Robert then extensively reworked the counterproof and these passages of original chalk-work are distinguishable by the redder, denser, crisper tone of the chalk, visible on the closest tree, the figures in the foreground and the bluffs on the far side of the waterfall.