August Hagborg arrived in Paris in 1875 and entered an art city that at the time was Europe's obvious centre. For young Swedish artists, Paris represented both a liberation from the traditions of the Academy and a chance to reach an international audience.

Hagborg's early years in the city were largely devoted to subjects from Parisian life itself. He painted genre scenes and street scenes where he captured the city's popular life, often with narrative motifs and clear figures from everyday Paris. An early breakthrough came with "Gavroche" (1876), a scene from the streets of Paris that garnered attention at the Salon and established him in the French art world.

It was not until after these years in Paris that he began to more consistently seek subjects outside the city, but until around 1880, it was precisely the Parisian themes and Salon successes that secured his position. Through his repeated participation in the Salon, he built a reputation as a skilled and audience-friendly genre painter.