This print is one of many etchings executed by Leon Kossoff in response to, and literally in the presence of, oil paintings by old masters; in this case The Family of Darius before Alexander, 1565-70, by Paulo Veronese (c.1528-88), owned by the National Gallery, London. Tate owns three prints by Kossoff after this Veronese painting (Tate P11715-17). The artist's ability to explore a number of separate responses while making drawings and prints from a single subject is illustrated in these etchings. This version is printed in black ink on white paper. This print was never published as an edition; Tate owns the eighth of fifteen trial proofs.

Veronese's colourful painting illustrates the story of the mistake made by the family of Darius, the defeated Persian Emperor, in identifying Alexander after the Battle of Issus. Alexander and his friend Hephaestion visited Darius's tent. The mother of Darius, misled by Hephaestion's splendour and bearing, offered him the obeisance due to the victorious monarch; Alexander forgave her for this error. Kossoff distilled the principal figures in Veronese's composition into a primarily linear structure, adding touches of cross-hatching to indicate fabrics and foliage. Drypoint was used to strengthen certain contours, along with repeated strokes to darken the shadows. Aquatint has been used to animate and to bring depth to the composition. A consequence of the printing process is that the image is a reverse of Veronese's original. Kossoff's print does not compete with Veronese's painting, nor does it seek to transcribe, copy or paraphrase it. Rather, it acknowledges the gulf that separates it from the pictorial culture of former times and demonstrates Kossoff's desire to find points of contact with Veronese. Kossoff has described the value of this kind of draughtsmanship as a means to building up an acquaintance with the subject of a picture made by another artist until he feels free to 'move about in its imaginative spaces' (Kendall, p.19).