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Molnár painted this composition during his stay in Rome. The picture reflects the influence of Italian painting and that of neoclassicism. As for arrangement, it can be traced back to less major masters of trecento and quattrocento. There is tension between the foreground, where the madonna is portrayed, and the background. The figure of Joseph, the carpenter, suggests the devotion of religious pictures, the stylized landscape based on a strict perspective revives the compositons of early renaissance but Mary's airy figure embodies 20th c. women. Her fashionable clothes different from those in traditional iconographies intensify the profane character. This kind of dualism appears in several of Molnár's biblical pictures. His compositions reflect meditative contemplation rather than religious devotion. Afer he had finished the picture, he gave it to Sári Megyeri, a writer and poetess, as a present, who lived in Paris and whose works Molnár illustrated. The title "Madonna in Pullover" came from her. She, in her turn, gave the picture to the Hungarian National Gallery as a present.
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