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Bellotto created a series of views of Dresden and Pirna for Count Heinrich von Bruhl, minister to the court of the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, Augustus III. Consisting of 15 paintings altogether, the whole series was acquired in 1768, with the rest of Bruhl's collection, by the Russian Empress Catherine II. Ten canvases are still to be found in the Hermitage. The somewhat dry manner of execution is balanced by the perfect precision with which the architecture is conveyed. To the left we see the building which then housed the picture gallery, and in the centre, in the depths of the painting, is the Church of the Virgin, and in front of it the court stables, destroyed in 1760 during the siege of Dresden by Prussian troops.