Weiss was a resident of St. Petersburg from 1839 to 1852 as a court painter to Duke Maximilian von Leuchtenberg (1817-1876), president of the Imperial Academy of Arts and the son-in-law of Tsar Nicholas I (1796-1855). In 1852, Weiss was awarded the title of Academician and left Russia soon afterwards. He maintained close links with his Russian patrons, however, and continued to paint views of Russian cities, primarily Moscow and St. Petersburg. These were often dramatic and heavily glazed large scale oil paintings, which were based on his earlier sketches and compositions of a similar nature to the present work.