In the black and white study on the left, Robert works with three essential elements: a running woman, a man in the water and the splash made by an unseen diver. The man is eliminated in the right-hand study and the finished painting, which makes the splash a little more mysterious and raises the question, is the woman a lifeguard trying to save the life of someone who might be in trouble or is she a casual swimmer in a hurry to join a companion in the water? The splash is exaggerated and anticipates the woman’s state once she enters the water herself. Robert explores variations on his images, by adding and subtracting elements. Often the changes are subtle, such as tilting the axis of the running woman’s body to create a strong diagonal, aimed directly at the splash, and giving the figure a sense of vigorous forward momentum.