The One of the Sea: Memory, Escape, and Ordinary Beauty in My Friends

What Is The One of the Sea?

The One of the Sea is a painting created by the character Kimkim (later known as C. Jat) when he was fourteen years old. At first glance it appears to be a seascape—a wide expanse of blue water. But the canvas actually shows a fishing pier stretching into the sea, with three small teenage boys sitting at the end. The title deliberately misdirects adult viewers, who see only water and miss the hidden children. The painting was produced without proper paint (Kimkim could not afford any) and was initially just a drawing of clouds, which he later developed into the final image.

The work first appears during a high-stakes auction in an old church (Chapter One), where the wealthy attendees treat it as an investment. It recurs throughout the novel as: a postcard Louisa carries, the flashback origin story in Chapter Fourteen, the museum “reverse heist” in the final chapters, and the central object that connects all the main characters.

The Painting’s Changing Meanings

For the Wealthy: Status and Commodity

At the auction, the painting is valued at millions. The rich couple who consider buying it complain that it is not orange enough to match their summer house furnishings. The old woman’s husband reads the estimated price rather than looking at the art. For these characters, The One of the Sea is a trophy—a symbol of wealth and taste. The narrator notes that “only something which has a price can have any value” in their world. This interpretation exposes how the art market strips meaning from the human story behind the work.

For Louisa: Memory, Grief, and Escape

Louisa, a seventeen-year-old runaway, views the painting entirely differently. She has seen it only on a postcard, yet she has memorized every shade of blue. The painting reminds her of her best friend Fish, who taught her how to break into places. After Fish’s death, Louisa breaks into the auction specifically to be near the painting. She explains that art can be “so beautiful that it makes a teenager too big for her body” and can make her forget her fear for a single moment. The sea in the painting becomes a mental escape—a place where she can avoid the pain of her abusive foster homes and the truth of Fish’s overdose.

Later, Louisa writes on the back of a stolen postcard of the painting a message from her deceased mother: “See you soon. —Mom.” This act transforms the painting into a tool for rewriting her own childhood memory, allowing her to imagine being wanted and loved.

For Joar: Love and a Promise

Joar is the friend who discovered the art competition and forced Kimkim to enter. He cannot express his affection directly, so he channels it into fierce encouragement: “Just paint! Just win that fucking competition!” To Joar, the painting represents a ticket out of the violent, impoverished harbour town. He believes that Kimkim will be the only one of the group to survive and find fame. The painting later becomes a painful symbol of his own sacrifice: after Kimkim’s death, Joar keeps a drawing of Kimkim on his fridge and admits he deliberately drove the artist away so he would leave the town.

For Ted: Burden and Responsibility

Ted, Kimkim’s childhood friend and later caretaker, carries the artist’s ashes and the painting on a train journey with Louisa. For Ted, The One of the Sea is a weight—both literally in his suitcase and metaphorically as the embodiment of Kimkim’s legacy. He struggles with the responsibility of fulfilling the artist’s final wish to buy back the painting. Yet the painting also represents the laughter and friendship that defined their youth. On the train, when Louisa tells Fish’s joke (“How do you get a one-armed man down from a tree?”), Ted mends his crooked glasses with tape—a small act that echoes the repair and connection the painting inspires.

For Kimkim: Origin and End

For the artist himself, the painting is the beginning of his career but also a reminder of the friends he left behind. Kimkim created The One of the Sea without paint, using only a drawing of clouds to express his sense of being “nothing.” The hidden children on the pier—Joar, Ted, and himself—are his way of keeping his friends with him forever. Later in life, he spends all his money to buy the painting back, desperate to own the one piece of his past that still holds meaning. The painting is thus both his first breath as an artist and his final grasp at the friendship he lost.

Character Connections

The painting physically binds together:

• Louisa: Her emotional attachment stems from her bond with Fish and her need for escape.
• Ted: He is charged with transporting the painting after Kimkim’s death.
• Joar: He inspired the painting and later guards its memory.
• Kimkim (C. Jat): The artist, for whom the painting is both salvation and sorrow.
• Fish: She is never in the painting but is always present in Louisa’s motivation to see it.

The painting also touches themes explored in other pages: friendship, grief and loss, art as redemption, sacrificial love, and trauma and resilience.

Study Questions with Answers

1. Why do most adults fail to see the three boys in the painting, and what does this say about their priorities?
   Adults are conditioned to follow the title “The One of the Sea” and look only for the sea. Their obsession with price, status, and surface-level appearance blinds them to the human figures. The novel contrasts this with teenagers like Louisa, who immediately focuses on the hidden children.

2. How does the meaning of the painting shift between the beginning of the novel (the auction) and the end (the museum heist)?
   At the auction, the painting is a commodity for the rich. By the end, it becomes a symbol of defiance: Louisa refuses to sell it because she does not want to see all art as money. The museum hanging is an act of reclaiming the painting’s true value—the memory of friends who laughed together.

3. In what ways does the painting serve as a coping mechanism for multiple characters?
   Louisa uses it as a mental escape from fear and grief. Joar uses it to express his love for Kimkim when words fail. Kimkim uses it to preserve his friends’ presence. Ted uses it as a tangible link to his deceased best friend. Each character projects their own needs onto the canvas.

4. What role does the artist’s lack of paint play in the creation and later interpretation of The One of the Sea?
   Kimkim had to draw the clouds first because he could not afford paint. This accident made the sea appear behind the children, forcing viewers to look longer. The narrator suggests that if the painting were a polished, expensive work, it might not have the same emotional pull. Its “amateur” origin becomes part of its mystique.

Conclusion

The One of the Sea is much more than a painting in Fredrik Backman’s My Friends. It is a repository of friendship, grief, and hope. It appears in different contexts—an auction, a church, a train, a museum—and each time it takes on new layers of meaning. The symbol unites characters across time, showing how art can rescue a moment of ordinary beauty and make it eternal.