Dated 1852 and inscribed on the verso 'Fritz de Niederhäusern, aôut 1852', this oil study by François Louis Fritz de Niederhäusern (1828–1888) shows the Wetterhorn above Grindelwald, looking from Kleine Scheidegg, Bernese Oberland, Switzerland.

Niederhäusern was a Swiss pupil of Alexandre Calame. He came from Mulhouse originally and was possibly still in Calame's studio, or taking part in his annual summer painting school in Meiringen, when he made this oil study in August 1852.

One of the first things one notices in this view looking towards the Wetterhorn and the Grosse Scheidegg pass is the thick band of ice tumbling down towards Grindelwald off the west flank of the mountain. The Upper Grindelwald Glacier has now receded far back up the valley, and in its wake there is now a considerable chasm between the moraines. Notwithstanding the effects of a warming climate, this is still one of the finest views in the Alps, and largely unchanged since Niederhäusern's time.

Direct plein-air studies by pupils of Alexandre Calame from this early period are rare on the market. Collectors of the Calame circle, Grindelwald/Wetterhorn views, and mid-nineteenth-century oil-on-paper Alpine sketches will find this a historically significant and closely dateable example, precisely inscribed to August 1852.