Karl Madsen writes the following about the painting in the above-mentioned book about Marstrand (in Danish):

“One of Marstrand's earliest paintings depicts the view from a window in Eckersberg's studio towards Bredgade and Thott's Mansion [today the French Embassy]. The doorman stands at Charlottenborg's gate in his red dress, street boys play in the shadow of the building, men converse at its corner; in the sunlight of the square a mother walks with her son and a dog barking in front of a wagon. By making his students paint the motif, Eckersberg's main intention was not to draw their attention to the life that could be observed from his window. When they painted this small part of Copenhagen, where the beauty of the architecture reminded of Paris and Rome, he explained to them the secrets of perspective, and saw to it that every single detail in the picture was carefully studied, reproduced purely, clearly, truthfully, as in a mirror.”

The present painting is, as the above quote also points out, one of the earliest known by Wilhelm Marstrand, and is, in addition to the work “Et uheld på kilderejsen” (The Journey to the Miraculous Spring) at The National Gallery of Denmark (Inv. No. KMS3345), the first he exhibited at Charlottenborg in 1830 at the age of 19.

Only 15 years old, Marstrand was admitted to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen and in 1826 he became a student of C.W. Eckersberg, who writes in his diary under 9 August 1826 (in Danish): “From 7 August, Wilhelm Marstrand began his painting studies.”

Marstrand, together with Christen Købke (1810–1848), Wilhelm Bendz (1804–1832), Constantin Hansen (1804–1880), Jørgen Roed (1808–1888), Albert Küchler (1803–1886), Martinus Rørbye (1803–1848), Adam Müller (1811–1844), Fritz Petzholdt (1805–1838) and others quickly became part of the inner circle of students around Eckersberg and he is often mentioned in Eckerberg's diary. Eckersberg taught his students in his studio in his apartment at Charlottenborg, and around 1829/1830 several of them drew or painted the same view out the window in his studio. The best known of these works is Christen Købke's version, which was sold at Bruun Rasmussen auction 673, 2000 no. 329, ill. on the cover and on p. 111. The painting was acquired here by the Ny Carlsberg Foundation for DKK 2,500,000 and is today at the Glyptotek (Inv. No. MIN3586).

The two painter friends of the same age Marstrand and Købke, who had started as students with Eckersberg in 1826 and 1828 respectively, must have worked on the motif in the same period. Without being identical, many small person details with slight variations recur in both paintings.

Art historian and former chairman of the Ny Carlsberg Foundation Board Hans Edvard Nørregård-Nielsen writes the following about the “famous window” in Eckersberg's studio (in Danish):

"There is no other window like that in Danish art, because it was from here that he [Eckersberg] first had them [his students] draw and then paint the familiar view that stretched from Charlottenborg's main facade with the gate towards the risalite on the opposite side. The French embassy is on the opposite corner, and you can see a bit down Bredgade. Eckersberg's students each provided their own version of the view, it could be interesting to bring them together […].” (Hans Edvard Nørregård-Nielsen, ”Gyldne dage og mørke nætter. Omkring Kongens Nytorv”, 1994, p. 106).

Eckersberg also draw the famous window himself. He did not draw the view though, but has retreated a little further into the studio, from where he has drawn his two daughters with their backs turned standing in front of the window enjoying the view. Through the window you can see among other things the risalite on the opposite side and the corner of the French embassy (”Ved et vindue i kunstnerens atelier” (At a Window in the Artist's Studio), the National Gallery of Denmark, Inv. No. KKS1196).