Konrad Mägi spent time in Kihelkonna during the summers of 1913 and 1914. There were wooden sheds on the coast of Abaja Bay in the vicinity of Kihelkonna, where medicinal mud baths were offered to treat polyarthritis. 

In Kihelkonna, Mägi painted the local church and the adjacent bell tower on several occasions. It is the only preserved bell tower in Estonia today that is separated from the church. 

Mägi’s fascination with the area around Kihelkonna and Vilsandi Island in particlar ushered in a new period in his creative career. On the basis of formal characteristics, it comes across as a life-affirming and optimistic period: paintings are full of colour and light, compositions are well balanced, space is rendered harmoniously, and the literary plots of works are observing of the world, not interfering with its course. Mägi’s scarce reports from Saaremaa are also more joyous than his letters from Tartu or Viljandi, sent only a short while back, exuding a darkness generated by depression.