In this painting, Flannigan has depicted a modern relationship between parent and child. Unlike the subject of the mother and child, a father and child is rarely depicted in art. The artist looked at family photographs in contemporary magazines as well as to paintings from art history as source material. The characters she has developed are familiar, middle-class types, with the unusual twist of a ‘male Madonna.’ The image has an unsettling quality, as the two figures look so alike - the boy looks unusually mature and self-possessed while the father stands casually, hand in pocket. This feeling of unease is highlighted by the unnatural green light which illuminates the figures.