It depicts a mermaid with a melancholic facial expression, leaning against a rock in shallow water, with a night sky residing over a moonlit sea in the background.

Andersen was the godfather of their daughter Caroline Elisabeth Nancy, later mostly known as Agnete (or TiTi),[3] probably inspired by the folk tale Agnethe and the Merman, who was born in 1853.

[4] When the just 19-year-old Wanda Zahrtmann visited Jerichau-Baumann's studio in December the same year, she was immediately struck by the mermaid's gaze.

After the death of both her parents, former vice admiral and naval minister Christian Christopher Zahrtmann and Sophie Elisabeth Donner, in 1853 and 1858, respectively, she was given an annual allowance by her trustees which was at her disposal.

In a letter to Jerichau-Baumann sent earlier the same day, she had described how she kept dreaming of the mermaid, both while asleep and awake, but how buying the painting would mean that she spent her entire annual allowance all at once.

In a letter to Henriette Scavenius, Hans Christian Andersen commented on the sale and that he found the price rather high.

Baumann hoped that the Shah of Persia, whom she met at an event in Buckingham Palace, would be interested in the painting, but in her memoirs she comments that "he passed me without even seeing me, I guess I wasn't young enough to attract his attention".

My gratitude here expressed in mere words One of Jerichau-Baumann's mermaid paintings (97×130 cm) belonged to baroness Sophie Lerche.

Instead, they appear more self-conscious and alluring as they lie rocking near the surface of the sea, treacherously covering the reef that could cause ships to run aground".

[10] In 2018, it was loaned out for the exhibition "Né(e)s de l'écume et des rêves" – "Une Sirène" at the Musée d'art moderne André-Malraux in Le Havre.