The present painting is a repetition of a painting from 1930 illustrated in Erland Porsmose & Susanne Thestrup Truelsen, “Fynbomalerne og H. C. Andersen”, 2005, p. 64.

In the years 1930–31, Johannes Larsen painted a series of 34 oil paintings in the same format, illustrating the fairy tale “The Ugly Duckling” by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875). The series was commissioned by Mrs Drude Jørgensen, who was the lessee of Fyns Forsamlingshus (Funen's local hall). The series was hung in a tight double frieze in the assembly rooms of the local hall. The series was presented together for the last time in 1942 at a sales exhibition at Charlottenborg, from where the paintings were sold individually (Porsmose 2005, p. 38). It was a story that interested Larsen, and he continued working with it.

However, this work from 1933 differs slightly from the painting from 1930 in the rendering of the branches and the duckling's foot position.