The first effect of this painting is of coming upon a scene just as one would when out walking: arriving at midday, and finding this corner of the river quiet, still and apparently uninhabited. The second impression – a double take – comes when one registers the presence of a cringing horse and crouching man, and searches the scene for an explanation.

In 1900, Roberts retitled the work ‘The bushranger’. There is a flash of yellow from a ricocheting bullet at a spot halfway up the rock-face, smudges of white that could be smoke from guns, and the helmet and shoulders of policeman at the top of the cliff.