Loch Muick is on the Balmoral estate in Scotland. Queen Victoria had loved the scenery there for many years. In 1849 she described it as ‘so wild and grand, real severe Highland scenery’. This painting shows the view from the road to the Glassalt, where the Queen had a remote shiel (small house), across the Loch. In March 1877 the Queen had been shown ‘some charming paintings done at Balmoral & Osborne by August Becker most of which I mean to buy’, according to the entry in her Journal. Dated: Balmoral 1864.