The story is from Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale Wild Swans, in which Princess Elisa’s eleven brothers are transformed into swans by their step-mother’s curse, only able to become human again at night. Elisa, banished from the palace, arrives at the shore where eleven swans fly in a line towards her. They land as the sun sets, transforming back into princes, and the siblings are reunited. The picture was praised by the Gloucester Citizen when it was exhibited at the RA in 1934: ‘A most graceful tempera study of “The Wild Swans”, which is a delightful symphony of white, gold and blue’. Beaumont was the niece of the painter Frederick Beaumont, and her sister was also a painter.