Katarina Stenbock was only seventeen when she married Gustav Vasa who was almost forty years older. She became the king’s third queen. Hugo Salmson’s painting is an example of a slightly more anecdotic and humorous form of historical painting which became popular some decades into the 19th century. Salmson illustrates a popular tale which tells how the king hears how his wife, while still asleep, recalls her former fiancé Gustav Johansson (Tre Rosor [Three roses]).