Signed and dated 1949, this oil view of the Matterhorn seen from Riffelberg is a mature work by Edward Harrison Compton (1881–1960), who, following his father Edward Theodore Compton, became one of the twentieth century's most celebrated chroniclers of the Alps.

Compton's Matterhorn views, painted from the classic vantage points above Zermatt, are prized for their precise, almost topographical rendering of the mountain's changing light and glacial detail - a tradition of Alpine painting spanning two generations of the Compton family.

The walk or train ride from Zermatt to Riffelberg offers the finest and most iconic views of the Matterhorn's 'Hornli' ridge. In the seventy years since Compton produced this summery 'portrait' of the Alps most famous emblem, the wide snow field straddling the base of the Matterhorn's south-east face has all but disappeared just as the glacier on the Zmutt Ridge to the north has shrunk considerably since the 1980s. Curiously, the peak's four sides face the four cardinal directions: north, east, south and west and it is undeniably a remarkable mountain, composed of gneiss rock. Geologically speaking it is classed as a 'cirque'. Despite Zermatt's relative remoteness, Whymper's conquest of the Matterhorn in 1865 became a cause celebre. It abruptly concluded one era in mountain-climbing, making way for a more recreational approach rather than one of perpetual conquest.