Alojzij Repič was the foremost representative of academic realism in Slovenian sculpture. The outstretched left hand of the boy, emerging from the Renaissance-style triangular composition of the Blind Beggar with a Boy, highlights the meaning of the sculpture. The seated bearded old man bows his head, holding a beggar’s hat in his right hand and resting his left hand on the bare shoulder of the standing boy, who is holding out his open palm in supplication.

Repič created this sculpture, which touched on social issues, in 1895, while he was studying under Professor Edmund Hellmer at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, following which he undertook specialisation under Professor Carl Kundmann. The work, then entitled The Blind Man, was first exhibited at the First Art Exhibition, held at the Jakopič Pavilion in 1900, and again a year before Repič’s death at the Jubilee Art Exhibition marking the 40th anniversary of the earlier event.