Francois Krige’s palettes are fascinating in that they are very often composed of subdued darker tones, allowing the colour with lighter values to really catch your eye. His compositions are also often closely cropped as if to signal an intimacy between painter and sitter. This trend can be seen throughout many of his works in the Montagu Collection, In this painting, the little boy on the swing pops out against the dark background with his white shirt and the light dancing off ropes of the swing in an almost perfect symmetrical composition.