Jean François Xavier Roffiaen (1820-98) studied at the Brussels Academy from 1839-42, under François Bossuet. Favouring depictions of Alpine landscapes, in the 1850s and 1860s he travelled in Switzerland, Austria, Upper Bavaria and the Haute-Savoie. During this period he enjoyed his greatest successes including sales in Belgium, Britain and the United States. His works were also acquired by the Shah of Persia, and by Belgian and British royalty. In 1861 a study tour of Scotland, commissioned by Queen Victoria , and arranged by Mr Jules Devaux, secretary to Leopold I, was cancelled due to the sudden death of the Prince Consort. In 1869 Roffiaen was honoured as a Chevalier de l’Ordre de Léopold.

The Königssee, a lake noted for the cleanliness of its water, is in the Berchtesgadener district of the German state of Bavaria, close to the border with Austria. This view looks across the Königsee to the Salzkammergut mountains; from the rocky, shaded inlet in the left foreground a large barge rowed by peasants in Alpine costume ferries cattle across the lake.