Abel de Pujol painted in the Neoclassical style of his famous teacher, Jacques-Louis David. This style, with its strong contours, smooth surfaces, and rigorously constructed compositions, held sway in France in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Abel de Pujol most often concentrated on religious and historical subjects, and apparently painted portraits only early in his career. This double portrait shows Nicholas Legrand, Abel de Pujol’s father-in-law, with the artist’s eldest son, Joseph Adolphe, portrayed with great sobriety.