The motif comes from Clemens Brentano’s Chronika eines fahrenden Schülers (Chronicle of a Travelling Pupil, 1818). In this tale the narrator, Johannes, is the illegitimate son of the knight Siegmund von Laurenburg and the fair Laurenburger Els. He recalls a happy moment from his childhood when he wove a wreath from oak leaves for his mother when she was carrying him through a forest. Schack described the painting: ‘Her features express in an unsurpassable way sorrow at the loss of her husband and boundless maternal love, and the innocence in the boy’s sweetly smiling face is equally heart-warming.’