Nils von Dardel grew up with his siblings Elsa and Fredrik at the small manor Svarthåll, located between Arboga and Kungsör. The environment of his childhood was safe and idyllic, and throughout his adult life, he would remember it as a kind of lost paradise.

However, this childhood idyll could sometimes be shattered by tragic events along the muddy banks of the Arboga River. It happened that children who were swimming slipped in the mud, ended up in deep water, and drowned. The artist's older brother Fredrik recounted on one occasion that they almost every year experienced how a beautiful summer day suddenly transformed into a sad tragedy. From a young age, they thus came close to death and its reality. These experiences made a strong impression on the young Dardel and awakened both fear and fascination with death.

Dardel himself also experienced a near-death situation when, in his late teens, he contracted a severe case of scarlet fever. The illness led to a heart defect that he would live with for the rest of his life.

Another deeply ingrained childhood memory was when the coachman's little daughter fell into the water and drowned. The memory of the girl in the Arboga River lingered with the artist well into adulthood. In the spring of 1919, he depicted the event in two gouache paintings, of which the one now up for auction is the first version.

In the motif, we see two men lifting the lifeless body of the girl from the water, while two groups of grieving people approach the riverbank. They lean slightly forward and seem almost to float, as if they were supernatural figures. The women, dressed in brilliant white, and the men in dark black emerge almost as silhouettes against a cool emerald green background. In the foreground, the artist has portrayed himself as an ethereal figure, detached from the event and gazing out at the viewer.

Through the flat and clean line work in the composition, Dardel conveys an emotional undertone of vulnerability and concern in the face of life's tragedy – an elegantly masked image of cruelty and compassion.

“Den Drunknande Flickan I (The Drowned Girl I) was originally part of the collection of art lover Jean O. Erikson, whose home was on Erik Dahlbergsgatan in Gothenburg. Erikson was the Norwegian consul general and married to the vibrant Norwegian artist Signe Hvistendahl. Together, they belonged to Gothenburg's affluent bourgeoisie, in the same circles as the Mannheimer and Pineus families. These families supported several young modernist artists, including Gösta Sandels, Birger Simonsson, and Nils Dardel.

In addition to the auction painting, the Erikson–Hvistendahl family also owned the first version of Dardel's work "The Dying Dandy" – a gouache depicting only grieving men. It is believed to have been sold later in connection with the consul's death in 1950.

In the lower right corner of "Den Drunknande Flickan I (The Drowned Girl I) is a dedication: “with heartfelt and sincere gratitude. Unfortunately, the reason for this gratitude is unknown today. What had Signe Hvistendahl actually done to deserve this recognition?