Niklaus Pfyffer (1836-1908) was born in Lucerne, Switzerland, and trained in Genva 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.

This landscape is dominated by the distant Mount Pilatus, which looms above Lake Lucerne, on the left, and low-lying green fields and trees in the middle ground. Several figures make their way through rough grassland, in the foreground.