When Koekkoek completed the Romantic Landscape in 1845, he was already a highly decorated artist, a member of the Amsterdam Academy, a Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion and a recipient of the Order of Leopold. His clients included Tsar Alexander II of Russia and King William IV of Prussia. To underline his status as a master painter, he had a palace built for himself in Kleve, which today houses the Museum Haus Koekkoek.