It is said that Milles came up with the plot for this picture in the summer of 1848 during a church sermon. On the canvas depicts little Jesus in the workshop of his father Joseph. Jesus just hurt his hand with a nail, which can be understood as a premonition of a future crucifixion.
Milles made the first sketches in November 1849, started the canvas in December, and in April 1850 finished the painting. A month later, the artist presented her at the summer exhibition of the Royal Academy – and disgruntled critics attacked him. Especially the writer Charles Dickens was outraged. In an article published in the Family Reading Weekly, he wrote that Jesus looks like a “repulsive, restless, red-haired boy – a crybaby in a nightdress who seems to have just come out of a nearby ditch.” About Maria Dickens said that she was written “to the horror of the ugly.” In similar expressions, Milles’ picture and the Time newspaper, which called it “disgusting”, replied to the picture.
According to the critic, “depressing to nausea details of the carpentry workshop obscure the really important elements of the picture.” In fact, the religious scene unusually represented by Milles was considered by many to be too rough and almost sacrilegious. Desperate, the artist decided that all his efforts were in vain: he spent many days in a real carpentry workshop, watching the work of the local carpenter and trying to record his every movement in the smallest detail. Meanwhile, this picture is still considered one of the most significant works of Milles.
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