Måns Schjerfbeck (1897-1971) was Helene Schjerfbeck’s nephew, the son of architect Magnus Schjerfbeck.  Måns was a teacher at a boys’ school in Helsinki and married a fellow teacher late in life; he was by all accounts, a quiet withdrawn person.  In the present work, we see a confidantly drawn sketch of Måns sitting at home quietly reading a newspaper.

Schjerfbeck painted Måns on several occasions and he posed for one of Schjerfbeck's best known portraits, subtitled The Motorist, despite the fact that he had neither a car nor a driving license.  This was an example of Schjerfbeck creating a modern, forward-thinking world in her work.