Lindegren was born in Stockholm. At the age of three, she was left an orphan after her mother's death and adopted by the widow of her alleged biological father, Benjamin Sandel. Her position as a child was somewhat humiliating, as a form of charity object for the upper classes, and in her later work, her paintings of sad little girls are believed to be inspired by her childhood. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amalia_Lindegren)