Bellany made a series of prints on the theme of the kiss. Here, the sexual content is explicit with the two figures apparently in bed, mouths wide open with their tongues merging into one. The spotted headscarf of the figure on the right suggests that the man is Bellany (as he appears in two self-portraits wearing the scarf). The image directly relates to Bellany’s Calvinist upbringing and notions of sex and guilt. Bellany only began to experiment with etching when he started teaching at Winchester College of Art. This is one of the first of a series of etchings he made in 1970. The spontaneous and lively line of the etching highlights how accomplished a draughtsman Bellany was.