Konrad Mägi arrived in Åland in May 1906. By that time, he had left the Stieglitz School in St. Petersburg and was dreaming about going to Paris, but for that he did not have sufficient funds. Several Estonian artists went to Åland: they had probably heard of the archipelago’s famous artists’ colony, but they never established contacts with it. 

On 19 May, Mägi wrote to his friend Mart Pukits: “I have happily arrived. The peasants here are all Swedish and they live like Estonian squires. Overall, I like it very much here, except that it is a bit cold right now. I’m thinking of staying here for at least a couple of months. Where I will go next, I have no idea. Fare very well!”

Mägi spent several months in Åland, living mainly in the attic of a farmhouse not too far from Mariehamn. The window in his room faced the north-west, from the window he could see fields and pastures. This is where Mägi supposedly began painting. Influenced by Nikolai Triik and following his example Mägi made sketches and paintings; only one of those is known to have survived.