Caspar Johan Nepmuk Scheuren (1810-87), born at Aix-la-Chapelle, is predominantly recognised as a painter of landscapes. Having studied at the Dusseldorf Academy, he became heavily influenced by the work of Karl Friedrich Lessing (1808-80) and Johann Wilhelm Schirmer (1807-63). In 1855, Scheuren won a professorship at the Dusseldorf Academy and remained in the city until his death in 1887. Many of Scheuren’s paintings depict the scenery around the Rhine.

On 27 October 1860, the Illustrated London News observed: ‘During the recent Royal visit to the Prince and Princess of Prussia […] her Majesty having heard of the great reputation of Professor Scheuren a distinguished artist of Dusseldorf expressed a desire to see some of the productions of his pencil, whereupon the Professor was summoned […] and exhibited a selection of his works’ (p. 405).

In this stormy winter landscape, a group of figures shelter around a fire protected by a large crop of rocks on the mountainside. Wagons and dispersed cattle suggest that the little party is on the move through the pass, over which a watchtower – constructed from the rock face – stands guard.