Carl Hilgers was already considered highly gifted in his student days and had an ease in his painting technique that is mentioned in art historical commentaries of the 19th century. “Hilgers was an extraordinarily prolific artist who possessed a skilful technique. […] Particular praise was given to the confident drawing, the truth of nature and the clear, harmonious colouring of his pictures,” notes Thieme-Becker’s Künstlerlexikon. The majority of his oeuvre consists of Dutch or Rhenish winter landscapes. Hilgers combines a large number of different motifs in the present painting, which in their entirety present a convincing picture of the colourful hustle and bustle on the ice and its shores on a cold winter’s day.