[3] Peder Severin Krøyer was born in Stavanger, Norway, but spent his childhood with his aunt in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Krøyer started painting in Skagen in the summer of 1882 and settled there permanently in 1889, after marrying Marie Triepcke.

[7] In 1990, an exhibition by the Hirschsprung Collection revealed that the painting had in fact been based on photographs of the two ladies taken by Krøyer.

[4] The painting was owned by the opera singer Lilli Lehmann, and in 1978 was sold to the German newspaper magnate Axel Springer for DKK 520,000.

[13] Once owned by Queen Margherita of Italy, the work was rediscovered when her granddaughter Princess Maria Beatrice of Savoy auctioned it at Christie's in April 2012.