Born in the territory of present-day Ukraine, the painter Władysław Rossowski was taught by Jan Matejko in the School of Fine Arts in Kraków.. Living in Kraków, his paintings were devoted mainly to historical and religious themes,  although he also did portraits. The painting depicting two children in a living room with a tiled stove in the corner and a plush curtain on the wall is a kind of courtly representative portrait. The chubby girl is dressed in a blue satin dress decorated with lace. In her right hand, she holds a straw hat with a ribbon identical to the one on her dress. The boy is dressed in a frock coat and wears a red 'krakuska' hat with a black trim and a peacock feather. To be sure, the feather is a device, a great colour accent that introduces dynamism to the painting and brightens its composition, but it cannot be ruled out that it could well be a patriotic symbol since it is the only element of traditional Kraków clothing in the boy's outfit. The painting most likely depicts the children of Ludwik Masłowski (1847-1928), a post-January émigrés activist, journalist, publicist, and editor of, among others, ‘Kurier Lwowski’ and ‘Przegląd Polityczny, Społeczny i Literacki’.