Hugo Salmson travelled to France as early as 1868 and was to spend the rest of his life there. He began his career as a history painter but was increasingly influenced by contemporary French art and was considered in the end to be more French than Swedish. Samson became a successful role model for the younger Swedes who arrived in Paris in the late 1870s. He was admired for his great technical proficiency, of which this painting is a good example.

Description in Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, vol 15, 2008:
Portrait of a Young Girl
NM 7048
With its Holbeinian finish this little portrait of a young girl is an excellent
example of Huga Salmson´s technical skill so admired by his artist
colleagues. With its range of colours, the clothes and the chair on
which the girl is seated, the painting is a rococo pastiche, a popular
genre at the time. But as such, unusual, as the look in her eyes is so
intense and direct that it over shadows what could be understood as
masquerade-like. The firm gaze makes the painting different from
Salmson´s other paintings of girls, for instance The Little Gleaner in
the Nationalmuseum collection, NM 1362, where the person depicted
seems resigned or burdened with hard work.