Christian Mølsted is best known as a painter of marines, and he got his first inspiration and education from Dragør's self-taught ship draftsmen, the ship carpenter Peder N. Foss (1821–1882) and pilot Hendrik Pedersen Strømberg (1840–1916). As a draftsman and painter, Mølsted primarily found his motifs in and around his hometown Dragør's old houses, by the city's harbour and not least in the ship traffic on the approach between Dragør and Drogden. However, he also dealt with depictions of people, as in the present painting, where he has depicted a mother and a child sitting in the grass. Probably the artist's wife and child.

At Bruun Rasmussen auction 623, 1996 no. 235, a painting of the artist's daughter in a pink dress sitting in the grass, dated 1893, was sold; and at Bruun Rasmussen auction 776, 2007 no. 1449 ill. 202, “Coffee in the green” depicting young girls in Amager costumes enjoying coffee sitting under a shady tree, was sold. Both these paintings are related to the present painting in terms of style and motif.