He painted his native Denmark including the north of Zealand and the island of Bornholm while also showing an interest in Mediterranean landscapes.

[3] He began to exhibit in 1834 as a portrait painter but soon switched to landscapes, following in the footsteps of Louis Gurlitt in depicting the Italian countryside.

The Statens Museum for Kunst has only bought one of his juvenile works but a larger image, Frederiksborg Castle, painted for Frederik VII in 1850, was the gift of a Russian grand duke.

His best works reconcile his interest in detail with a masterly representation of nature while his less successful paintings barely do more than convey the scene.

Especially in his paintings of the Italian countryside, his contemporaries noted similarities with Gurlitt's efforts to add a more idealistic approach to his meticulous studies of nature.