The Villa Bellerieve was formerly known as Zerleitenbaum and was renamed Bellerieve by its owner, the Countess Sophie d’Harnoncourt-Haugwitz circa 1844.  It was she who commissioned the picture circa 1854. The building is executed in a severe neo-classical style, with much Palladian influence. Pictures of this type seem to be unusual in the context of the artist who was influenced by seventeenth-century Dutch masters.  The use of moonlight in the composition harks back to the eighteenth century tradition especially in French and English painting, ranging from Claude-Joseph Vernet, Joseph Wright of Derby and Jules-César van Loo.

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