Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck, the Dutch ambassador in Paris, commissioned Knip to make a series of paintings of the Batavian embassy, the Hôtel de Beauharnais. This is the view from the embassy, towards the two identical facades of the Hôtel de la Marine and the Hôtel de Crillon on the Place de la Concorde. An optical telegraph is visible at right atop a gabled roof, while another one can be seen in the far right distance, on Montmartre. Such enabled contact between Paris and the Netherlands.