Ivar Arosenius arrived in Paris for the first time in January 1904. He befriended a number of Scandinavian artists who were active in Paris at this time. An artist he knew from Gothenburg, Axel Törneman, had recently arrived from Munich. The two friends both fell in love with the Norwegian singer Gudrun Höyer-Ellefsen. Whilst Törneman won Höyer-Ellefsen’s heart, she felt motherly affection for Arosenius and often cared for him during his periods of illness in Paris.

Most importantly for Arosenius, Höyer-Ellefsen became the model for his depictions of princesses. Princessan hos trollet (in Gothenburg Museum of Art), also painted in 1904, is perhaps Arosenius’s most direct portrayal of her. The girl at the water’s edge (cat no 13) is probably based on her figure and she lives on in Princessan.

The princess is sitting on a donkey. This is probably Madame Hecqueart’s animal in Coudeville, (cat no 29). A watercolour of the artist himself on the same donkey is documented.