In this portrait, Pedro Benítez sits informally on a chair, resting his left arm on its back while gazing frankly and directly at the viewer with whom he establishes an empathetic relationship. He is dressed in the fashion of the reign of Ferdinand VII, with a marvellous cravat emerging from his vest and a book in his right hand. Beside him, standing, is his daughter María de la Cruz, who affectionately rests her right hand on her father´s arm. Her hair is adorned with a striking diadem of flowers. The painter has managed to emphasise the delicateness of her features without shying away from depicting her evidently defective right eye. He has also drawn attention to her fondness for music, indicated by means of the score she holds in her right hand and the keyboard instrument behind her at which she has been seated.This is a portrait of members of the bourgeoisie who wished to leave a record of their social status, indicated by the clothing with which they adorn themselves, the richness of their household furnishings and the indications of their artistic and intellectual predilections. The sense of familial affection is also not lacking in the image.This is one of the earliest surviving paintings by Rafael Tejeo, a capable portraitist who defended a neoclassical aesthetic, which is reflected in the importance he gave to clean contours and the use of cool, contrasting colours. This work is most likely a pendant to La señora Benítez y sus hijos (Madame Benítez and her sons), now in the Museo de Murcia, which represents the three other family members dressed in a similar style and has roughly the same dimensions. Though in the latter case they are represented outdoors, Tejeo has deployed a similar composition: in both paintings he emphasises the family hierarchy by, in the first case, showing the father seated and, in the second, placing the mother in a more forward position. At the same time, however, he stresses the affective relationship between them, shown in the pendant canvas by the older son resting his hand on his mother´s shoulder while she, in turn, holds the hand of the younger boy. The sitters in these two portraits would eventually become members of Tejeo´s own family after his marriage to María de la Cruz following his return from Italy in 1827.This work, together with its companion, constitutes a noteworthy example of the evolution of the family portrait in Spain, a genre with a long tradition and which, from the end of the eighteenth century, experienced a significant increase in popularity in a developing bourgeois society. Frequently, traditional conventions were maintained in this genre, such as the emphasis on the different hierarchical relationships between family members, but the representation of new sentiments appeared as well, such as expressions of fondness or spontaneity. Here, for instance, the father has interrupted his reading and his daughter her session at the keyboard to pose for the painter (Portús, J.: Portrait of Spain. Masterpieces from the Prado, Queensland Art Gallery-Art Exhibitions Australia, 2012, p. 200).