The subject is a well dress boy with a hat shown from the waist upwards. The most obvious and visually striking aspect of the work is that the boy’s face has been replaced entirely by a key. Key boy certainly references the Surrealists, particularly the paintings of René Magritte, whose The Son of Man comes to mind, where a man’s face is obscured with an apple in much the same way as the boy’s face is replaced by a key.