Dresden was famous for its splendid skyline, whose distinctive character emerged in the first half of the eighteenth century under the reigns of August the Strong and his son Friedrich August II. The city was best known through the large vedute painted by Bernardo Bellotto, who was appointed court painter to Friedrich August II in 1747 after he painted his large View of Dresden, seen from the right Bank of the River Elbe above the Augustus Bridge. Fearnley’s approach to the cityscape of Dresden in this sketch is quite different from Bellotto’s, although both pictures are painted from the right bank of the river Elbe. Unlike Bellotto, he was less interested in painting the monuments of the city, aiming, instead, to capture the breathtaking atmosphere at the precise moment of sunset on a cold winter’s day. His choice of subject pays homage to the Romantic spirit one finds in similar works by Friedrich and Carus. The figure of a single, solitary man seen from behind clearly recalls Friedrich’s Romantic imagery. Unlike Friedrich, however, Fearnley did not use the sunset or the winter scene as metaphors for the relationship between man and nature. He was primarily interested in recording the sunset as accurately as possible. From the white spot of the sun on the far right, the last golden rays of the day radiate, gradually turning to a fiery red that stretches across the sky and is reflected in the river in the foreground. By contrast, the first signs of dusk are rendered in various shades of black, grey and dark yellow. Since Fearnley left Dresden in June 1830, our sketch must have been painted during the short winter months of 1829-30.