Pehr Hilleström was a friend of Carl Michael Bellman, perhaps the leading Swedish poet of the 18th century. Hilleström sometimes illustrated Bellman’s letters and poems. This sentimental portrait shows a weeping Bellman at a table. He is writing an ode to his friend, state secretary Johan Gustaf von Carlsson, who had been personally affected by the accidental blowing up of two Swedish vessels in the Russo-Swedish War in 1790.