Two cornerstones of a young artist’s development in the late 19th century were studies and free activities abroad. In March 1896, Simberg traveled to London, where he visited museums and galleries, attended two operas and went to the famous Crystal Palace. He liked English applied art in particular. He also thought the British Museum was ‘wonderful’ – particularly the works of Dürer and Holbein and Japanese woodcuts. Yet the city that stole his heart was Paris. To arrive from a foggy, smoky and dusty London to stylish Paris was quite as delightful as being rid of the flu that he had had in London, Simberg wrote in his diary. He saw all Parisians as artistic. There was something in them that drew one’s attention to the individual and made him or her interesting. Unlike his fellow artists, however, Simberg did not paint appealing impressions of the great metropolis; he expressed and illustrated his inner feelings. The Garden of Death was first conceived of in Paris, while in Fantasia a naked young man looks out over a dark, windy expanse of water with a golden staff in his hand. Next to him rises up the mountainous body of a dead, yellow dragon. (http://www.simbergintoinenmaailma.fi/en/works/fantasy/)