Detailed scenes from Copenhagen such as the present painting were a typical motif for the Danish Golden Age painters, who studied the city's architecture, landscapes and harbours. Frederik Rohde has executed several such paintings and studies from Copenhagen.

Rohde studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in the years 1830–34 and was a student of J. L. Lund (1777–1867). He also received guidance from Heinrich Buntzen (1803–1892) and Christen Købke (1810–1848). During a stay in Munich in the 1840s, Rohde was strongly influenced by the romantic landscape painting and he especially practised winter landscapes throughout his further artistic career.

The Museum of Copenhagen has a drawing depicting Larsens Plads by Frederik Rohde, this one dated c. 1850 (Inv. No. 1935:082).

Larsens Plads is the area off Toldbodgade along the inner harbour in Copenhagen. It is named after the shipbuilder Lars Larsen (1758–1844), who in 1802 established a shipyard on the land where Amaliehaven is located today at Amalienborg Castle. The warehouse in the background of the painting must be the old grain drying warehouse (Korntørringsmagasinet), today the Admiral Hotel.