The Outer Moat of Amsterdam, with the Leidse Poort, seen from the Town Theatre

In 1813 Amsterdam still ended at the Singelgracht, its outer canal. Jelgerhuis painted this view from the city theatre on the Leidseplein, looking down on the water from high up, and on the far bank the city simply stops. At left stands the Leidsepoort, the city gate with its tower, then a drawbridge, a few houses, and beyond them open country with farms and windmills. The Rijksmuseum points out that the windmill on the left stood roughly where the museum itself was built some 70 years later. That year, 1813, was also the last of French rule, and in November the French left Amsterdam. The painting was bought for the national collection in 1814, and the gate was pulled down in 1862.