Maximilian Joseph Haushofer (1811–66) studied at the Academy in Munich, and was later a professor of landscape painting at the Academy in Prague. After his studies he undertook travels in Italy, Sicily, on the Rhine, and in Austria. In 1828 he took up residence near the Chiemsee in Bavaria, where he applied himself to drawing from nature. For a short time he was a pupil of Joseph Anton Sedlmayr, and later of Carl Friedrich Heinzmann. In 1832 he moved to live close to the Königssee, and in 1835, to Lake Starnberg. He first exhibited in 1833 at the Munich Art Society, and in 1834 he was exhibited in Prague.

Klöntalersee, in the Klöntal Valley, is a natural lake in the Canton of Glarus, Switzerland. Since 1908, it has been harnessed as a reservoir for electricity production. This view looks south over the lake to the Glarnish mountains; calm waters with a rocky shore, right, the shore across the water to the left bordered by coniferous forest. Cows graze on the far shore beneath the gentle lower slopes of the crags.