In the catalogue to the exhibition, German Art of the Twentieth Century at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1957, Max Liebermann was hailed as one of "the Impressionist Triumvirate", alongside Lovis Corinth and Max Slevogt. With its broad brushwork, strong light effects and delight in the captured moment, this painting perfectly illustrates Liebermann's debt to the Impressionists. He delighted in painting the bourgeoisie of Berlin visiting the Tiergarten throughout the year and from 1917 onwards he painted many plein air views of the Berliner Tiergarten, capturing the light effects of snow in winter and the bright, dappled sunlight of summer.

Eisläufer im Berliner Tiergarten belongs to a series of at least five paintings of the same subject, executed between 1919 and 1924.