Niklaus Pfyffer (1836-1908) was born in Lucerne, and trained in Geneva under Jakob Joseph Zelger and Alexander Calame, and under Schirmer in Karlsruhe. He also worked in Düsseldorf. The Royal Collection has seven landscapes by Pfyffer, dating from between 1868 to 1885 (RCIN 407500, 407875-407879, 403741).

After initial purchases in 1869, following her visit to Switzerland the previous year, Queen Victoria renewed her contact with Pfyffer in 1885, when she asked him to come to Aix-les-Bains to paint her favourite views. These purchases are not only testified by Pfyffer's accounts book, but also by the surviving correspondence between the artist and the Queen's agents. According to the artist's accounts, in 1869 Queen Victoria ordered two oil paintings of the Jungfrau from Interlaken, and the purchase is recorded in correspondence from Windsor, dated 17th April 1869. The work was delivered the following month, to either Buckingham Palace or Balmoral, to the Queen's satisfaction, A view from the Queen's quarters at Pension Wallis was ordered in July 1869, and delivered to Osborne in August. Confirmation of delivery of a view of Mont Blanc was sent on 25 July 1885.

This works shows a mountainous alpine landscape in summer, with a lake in the foreground on which is a small boat under sail; on the shores of the lake are houses with woodland and pasture rising up behind them.