Marine Scene with Two Russian Ships

During a sketching trip along the Danish coast in summer 1827, Eckersberg made drawings of two Russian warships. He developed these into finished paintings such as this, a favourite subject. The sensibility is typical of the period: the artist was fascinated equally by the technological achievements represented by these ships – every rope meticulously depicted – and with the immensity of Nature itself, as expressed in the vast vista of sky and water.