This little girl with her bowl of gruel has also set out breakfast for her doll. The silver spoon in her hand tells us this is a well-to-do home. The picture expresses the contemporary middleclass ideal of childhood – one of innocence and sentimentality. Amalia Lindegren was a much appreciated artist in her lifetime, and several of her genre pictures were acquired for the new Nationalmuseum. This one was bought in 1866, the year the Museum opened. The many reproductions of her paintings testify to the great popularity she enjoyed in her day.