These distant views of two lovers dancing on a clifftop turn the breath-taking scenery into an impromptu stage. Robert uses light and shade to blend figures and landscape together. Dark shadows give weight and importance to the figures, while the elaborate cross-hatching on the cliff face suggests mass and texture. In contrast, the sea is treated with the utmost simplicity, with the receding lines providing perspective and a sense of space and distance.

In the study on the left, as in the painting Summit, the man stands closest to the edge. The study on the right, like the painting High, places the woman closest to the edge to reflect the fact that she is the more vulnerable of the two characters. Robert moves closer in the second drawing to allow a clear identification of the figures.

A cliff metaphor recurs throughout the first part of Elizabeth Smart’s novel, By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept. To this Robert adds the image of a dance. He invents something that is partly in the spirit of the novel, and partly a reflection of his own ideas about romance and fantasy.