Charles André van Loo (1705-1765), known as Carle van Loo (or Vanloo), was an important French painter and the most famous of his family of artists. His grandfather, Jacob van Loo, was a Dutch painter who came to France. His father, Louis-Abraham van Loo, specialized in religious and mythological paintings. Carle van Loo studied with his brother, Jean-Baptiste van Loo, in Turin and Rome before joining the Académie Royale de peinture et de sculpture in Paris, where he won the Prix de Rome in 1724. Carle van Loo had a brilliant career, being professor at the Académie Royale, where the famous Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) was one of his pupils, and being, from 1762 until his death, the painter to the French king Louis XV. This sanguine counterproof shows two hand studies: first, two joined hands, probably intended for a praying figure, and, on the right, an open hand that we can imagine reaching out to something or someone. Like the Study of two faces, this sheet is part of the artist's regular production, as he practiced drawing various subjects in his studio, whether in preparation for painted works or not.