Preben Michael Hornung and Kasper Monrad write the following (in Danish) about Eckersberg as a marine painter in “C. W. Eckersberg - dansk malerkunsts fader” (C. W. Eckersberg - father of Danish painting), Cph. 2005, p. 227:

"No other Danish painter mastered this field with such precision as Eckersberg. Nor did any painter make such high demands on the practice of the genre. In his view, a painter who wanted to make a proper marine painting had first to know the different types of ships, their size, curvature, etc., and to know whether the ship was a battleship, a corvette, a frigate or a ship of the line. From the hull and rigging, that is, the entire sailing machinery, he also had to be able to determine a ship's nationality and its mission: whether it was to be used for war or trade. He had to have an overview of the situations a ship could face when it was in the sea, or if something happened, and how to maneuver it under changing weather conditions with the help of good seamanship. In addition, he had to know about meteorology and its significance, about how the wind affected the waves and the sails, and what clouds appeared in the sky in what kind of weather. Because wind conditions were important for the appearance of the sea as well as for the clouds. And it all had to fit together."

The above quote testifies to Eckersberg's great thoroughness and careful examination of reality in relation to his subjects in general, but in particular in relation to the marine painting, which was very close to his heart. Nothing must be 'wrongly' depicted - everything had to be in accordance with reality.

For this purpose, Eckersberg kept a careful notebook of weather and wind conditions, and he went on many short and longer sailing trips aboard many different types of ships to study everything that had to do with sailing. And on his many walks around Copenhagen, he often visited the Nyholm naval station and the city's many docks to closely study the ships, also during the their actual construction phase. He even constructed a small ship model in wood to use for studies for his marine paintings (see cat. no. 27).

The present work is a classic, very beautiful and large example of Eckersberg's marine paintings. The large ship lying at anchor represents the corvette Flora. On the sea around Flora, Eckersberg has placed many smaller ships of various types, some of which are at anchor and others are on their way in different directions at full sail - all of them are minutely and detailedly described and carefully positioned in relation to each other and in relation to the sea, the waves and the viewer in a complex spatial construction. A fresh breeze creates small waves with foam tops. Just above the horizon, the sky is coloured in a warm light pink light, which is replaced upwards by a cool clear blue sky with a few grey-white clouds. The rigging on the corvette forms a cobweb of fine patterns against the sky. A naval officer is about to climb aboard. And another small rowing boat with sailors is heading out towards the corvette.

In many ways, Eckersberg's marine paintings become the apotheosis of his artistic endeavor to unite careful studies of nature and natural scientific observations and data with the abstract and formal qualities of painting, including the colours, the light and the geometrical construction of perspective. It is a carefully constructed and idealised representation of reality, where nothing is left to chance. It is full of details that you can zoom in on without losing the experience of the whole.

Flora was launched in 1826 and in 1830, when the painting was painted, it was a guard ship in the Sound (Øresund).

A colour lithography of the painting was made by lithographer P. W. Johannsen at Normann Zeuthens Kunstforlag in 1942.