Ehrenswärd aquried the estate of Dömestorp in 1796 where he spent most of his life after that. Before Sergel’s visit the two friends began a correspondence likened to a ping pong game where the friends sent drawings between them, returning them instantly upon receiving a letter. This drawing is the two friends kept a part by distance but united in mind and by pen. It is probably executed around Christmas in 1796/7 when Sergel travelled on to Copenhagen to see another good friend, the Danish painter and sculptor Abildgaard.