Provenance: The artist’s estate auction 1849, listed under (in Danish): V. Original drawings by Rørbye, 1. Zealand, Møn and Samsø, c. views of and by buildings, No. 20b. Bruun Rasmussen auction 139, 1962 no. 263. Here wrongly described as executed by C. W. Eckersberg and as “View through Kronborg's casemates”.

The old lime kiln was placed just north of Copenhagen and was a picturesque motif for many of the Danish Golden Age painters – here was beautiful nature close to the sea and distinctive brick buildings for burning lime. It therefore became a favorite excursion destination for many of the students at the art academy, who precisely here in the early 1820s on their own initiative, inspired by the artistic circles around Europe, began to go on joint excursions to Copenhagen and the surrounding area to paint and draw under the open sky directly after nature.

C. W. Eckersberg (1783–1853) describes in his diary the summer 1825 how he also began making excursions with his students to Copenhagen and the surrounding area to train them in drawing after nature. He also brought them to the old lime kiln.

The present drawing contains many of the central themes and motifs of the Danish Golden Age painters: perspective, effects of light and shadow, architecture, the sea and ships and the open gate / window.

The main part of the drawing consists of a massive and impenetrable centre of a building. It is almost like a defensive structure intended to keep people out, which is probably the reason why it was once thought to be from Kronborg's casemates. The wall is pierced by a strong vaulted opening, which in a dramatic shortening of the perspective and with sharp light and shadow effects opens up towards the light, the sea and the ships, which lie on Copenhagen's anchorage ready to sail out to distant exotic destinations. There is no doubt that Rørbye has appreciated and seen the possibilities in the lime kiln's different buildings and location so near to the sea.

The arched opening becomes a funnel or perhaps more like a telescope, through which we as viewers look out and which on the one hand gives us a long, clear view – we can see all the way to the Trekroner sea fortress – but on the other and somewhat contradictory hand also limits our view – we can only see what the telescope is focusing on, not what is happening on the sides.

The opening, both in the form of a gate or a window, is a classic romantic symbol for the experience of standing on the threshold between an inner space and the outer world / 'the near and the far' and was used by many Danish and international artists of the time, as an expression of a longing for the world outside.

One of Rørbye's best-known works “View from the artist's window” c. 1825 has precisely the open window facing the harbour as a motif (the National Gallery of Denmark Inv. No. KMS7452).