Throughout the artist's lifetime, both Greuze's sentimental and serious pictures attracted many patrons. This picture, a copy of one of his more moralising works, shows a family gathered around a low table to listen to their father read from the New Testament. Apart from the littlest boy, who is distracted by the family's dog, all the children are pictured displaying great concentration towards what is being read to them.

This imaginary family is depicted as working class, rather than wealthy. The picture may have been meant as a reminder to its poorer viewers that to be a good Christian is better than to enjoy a surfeit of material possessions. However, as the painting probably would have been sold to someone from the middle classes, it would have worked as a sign that French society was decent and honest, and, perhaps, that the painting's owners should not feel too guilty about not making charitable donations to the poor, as they were leading happy, Christian lives without any external help.