Emil Hannover, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of C. W. Eckersberg no. 585.

Eckersberg writes about the painting in his diary:

6 June 1845 “Begyndt at anlægge et lille Genrebillede”. (Began preparing a small genre painting).

29 July 1845: “Arbeidet paa og blevet færdig med et lidet Genrebillede, Udsigt igennem en Gadedør med Figurer”. (Worked on and finished a small genre painting View Through a Door with Figures).

Exhibited: Kunstforeningen, “Udstillingen af C. W. Eckersbergs Malerier”, 1895 cat. no. 321.

The National Gallery of Denmark, “Eckersberg og hans elever”, 1983 cat. no. 83.

Literature: Philip Weilbach, "Maleren Eckersbergs Levned og Værker”, 1872, mentioned p.126 and p. 236.

Bente Skovgaard, “C. W. Eckersbergs værker kommenteret” in “C.W. Eckersberg og hans elever”, exhibition catalogue, The National Gallery of Denmark, 1983, English ed. 1984, cat. 83, mentioned p. 89.

Kasper Monrad, “Fra Odysseus’ borg til Langebro”, in Kunstmuseets årsskrift 1990, mentioned p. 98 and reproduced p. 99.

Philip Conisbee, Kasper Monrad, Lene Bøgh Røberg, “Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, 1783–1853”, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2003–2004, no. 47, mentioned p. 150 and reproduced p. 151.

Peter Michael Hornung & Kasper Monrad, “C.W. Eckersberg - dansk malerkunsts fader”, 2005, mentioned p. 364, reproduced p. 365.

Jesper Svenningsen, “Historiefortælling. På flugt fra Patos” in “Eckersberg”, exhibition catalogue, The National Gallery of Denmark, 2015–16, mentioned p. 145, reproduced p. 185.

M. Bertsch, “Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg. Facetten seines bildnerischen Denkens”, in “Eckersberg - Faszination Wirklichkeit: das Goldene Zeitalter der dänischen Malerei”, exhibition catalogue, Hamburger Kunsthalle, 2016, mentioned p. 47 and reproduced fig. 7.

Jesper Svenningsen, “Narration. Éluder le tragique”, in “C. W. Eckersberg 1783–1853. Artistes Danois à Paris, Rome & Copenhague”, exhibition catalogue, Fondation Custodia 2016, mentioned and reproduced p. 76.

Provenance: The estate auction of C. W. Eckersberg 1854 no. 99. Ludvig Heckscher's art collection, his auction, November 1913 no. 18, reproduced (no pagination) sold for DKK 912. Bruun Rasmussen auction 138, 1961 no. 69, reproduced p. 19, sold for DKK 3,500. Bruun Rasmussen auction 650, 1998 (50th anniversary auction), no. 190, reproduced p. 139, sold for DKK 1,180,000.

Here, Eckersberg captures a moment frozen in time, yet it is also focused on movement. All the people portrayed are moving towards something taking place outside the frame of the door and of the painting itself. We become curious and follow the movement of the running people with our own eyes, but there is no answer whatsoever to what is going on. They are all in a hurry to reach something outside in the sunshine - something that for us as viewers, who are placed in the darkness of the interior in the foreground, is an unseen event. Only the maid stands still in the doorway and looks towards the event, while she shades her eyes against the sun with her right hand. She is placed on the threshold between light and shadow, between being inside and outside.

In "Linearperspektiven, anvendt paa Malerkunsten” from 1841, Eckersberg has carried out a small etching with a similar motif Tab. VI, fig. III (see p. 18). This painting further develops the motif and tells us that Eckersberg had worked with this composition for several years.

"These two main themes - that the surrounding world is experienced in glimpses, and that it cannot be fully apprehended - link this work to others by Eckersberg that seem to recognize the elusiveness and fragmentary nature of modern age. This state, seen in a wider perspective, derived from the general collapse of political, social and ideological values on both national and international levels around 1800. (Lene Bøgh Rønberg, Washington 2003–2004, p. 150)