Bengt Lagerkvist writes about the work: ‘One of his very personal paintings from this year is called “The Girl on the Road”, which was included in the Conrad Pineus collection. A young woman in a white dress and long dark hair hurries along a road that rises towards the horizon where a large Sandalwood cloud looms. She seems to be fleeing from something or to something: the white figure shines against the dark road that leads
away? We do not see her face, but we believe, without realising it, that the expression is anguished, judging by the body language. There is a lot of Edvard Munch's female figures in the painting, of escape from life or into life, but still more of Gösta Sandels himself. Is this a motif that the artist has seen? He has happened to be standing by the road, a woman in a light-coloured dress has hurried past on her way towards the dark clouds and he has been struck by the image - or is it pure fantasy like so much of his art? Not entirely, though. In his own photo album, with its beautiful red morocco ribbon, there is a photograph of just the road, taken by himself and with his own handwriting underneath! That's what an artist does: mixes reality and fantasy.’ (p.94)