This painting and a companion picture, A view of Kronborg (RCIN 402590), were painted in Berlin by the Princess Royal, Queen Victoria's eldest daughter, to hang above doorways in the Prince of Wales's Dining-Room at Marlborough House. The Princess wrote to her mother in December 1881 that she was 'just finishing' the paintings: 'I am much disappointed with the result though they have given me no end of trouble. I only hope that they will be good enough to be put up in that lovely room'.

The view depicts Windsor Castle from the river and the painted decorative framework incorporates the feathers of the Prince of Wales on the left, and the arms of the Prince of Wales carrying his Saxe-Coburg arms on a shield on the right.