In 1835 Eckersberg worked on a bunden opgave - a series of four works for the decoration og the riddersal of Christiansborg Castle. Apparantly the motif “Christian den 1. indstifter Elefantorden”. (King Christian the I. instituting The Order of the Elefant.) caused him a some hovedbrud - he writes in a letter to the Commission of the slotsbygning from april 1835 (In Danish) “I must remark: It seems quite difficult, indeed perhaps impossible, to capture the intitutioning of an order in a painting”. During the process the received counselling and advise regarding the motifs from professor of history Laurits Engelstoft (1774–1851) and the final work is quite different from the draft from 1834–35, known from Det Nationalhistoriske Museum Frederiksborg.

Literature: Peter Michael Hornung & Kasper Monrad: “C. W. Eckersberg - dansk malerkunsts fader”, 2005, p. 275–285.