This painting is a key transitional work between Wolmarks' earlier Rembrandtesque style and his love towards modernism, revealing a new handling of paint and touches of a lighter palette. Familiar with the work of Samuel Hirszenberg’s from his time in Poland, he undoubtedly references the older artist’s 'Sabbath Rest' (1894, Ben Uri Collection) in his own Sabbath painting but transposes his subjects to a typical East End setting. To underline their Orthodoxy, Wolmark shows his couple absorbed in their Sabbath studies, including important details of Jewish religious observance, such as the Bessamim (ceremonial spice tower) on the table. Yet the focus has shifted from interior to exterior and from domestic to industrial, as the sun setting over the city’s smoking chimneys is glimpsed through the window behind.