This is a portrait depicting John Galsworthy's father (also called John Galsworthy) with Rudolf Sauter as a child examining a rock.

Notes:  Galsworthy's father was a sollicitor and had inherited substantial wealth with which he bought the family home, Coombe Warren. He married at 45 to Blanche Bartleet and his son John was their second child and first son. The warm, affectionate personality, which Galsworthy was remembered by his son as having, is evident here in the poses of both himself and the child, Rudolph Sauter, who was the son of the artist of this portrait and the nephew of the younger John Galsworthy.