One of Finland’s most important artists of all time, Albert Edelfelt, worked, like many of his Nordic artist colleagues, in Paris for a long time. At the beginning of his career, he focused on history paintings, and it was with such a work that he, at the age of 23, shot to prominence at the 1877 Paris Salon. The painting Queen Blanka also received wide acclaim at the World’s Fair the following year.
Like many of his contemporaries, Edelfelt later turned to more realistic depictions of the life and manner of the people, which he often made during the summers in Finland. In addition to commissioned portraits, which formed a substantial part of Albert Edelfelt’s artistic production, he also painted his family and friends. That the family was central to him is testified by the many portraits of his mother, sisters and, later, his own family. In the work Good Friends II we see his 12–year-old sister Berta with her dog Capi in their summer house in Haiko. A young girl reading a book with a dog in her lap was a common 19th-century motif.
