Signed and dated 1878, this large watercolour by the Victorian mountain painter Arthur Croft (1828–1902) shows the little-painted western, Zmutt Ridge face of the Matterhorn, seen from the Stockji Glacier below.

A member of the Alpine Club and a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy between 1868 and 1893, Croft was among the first British artists to record the Matterhorn's more remote aspects, at a time when Edward Whymper's first ascent in 1865 had made the mountain a subject of intense public fascination.

A late afternoon light is catching the upper half of the Matterhorn's west flank in this remarkably well-preserved Victorian watercolour. Of its four faces, this side of the peak, the Zmutt Ridge, is the least familiar to artists and photographers and the one that awaits skiers when completing the traditional Haute Route. Arthur Croft's view was taken from low down on the Stockji Glacier looking across the Tiefmatten Glacier to the Matterhorn. The distinctive, flat Pic Tyndall (4241m) is to the right of the summit on the Lion Ridge separated from the final pitches by a huge cleft that defeated John Tyndall's summit attempt in July 1863.

Croft exhibited 36 works at the Royal Academy from 1868 to 1893 and was made a member of the Alpine Club to include his paintings and drawings of the Alps in their annual exhibitions. The Alpine Club owns three watercolours by him including a large panorama of the Zermatt Alps which is equally as impressive as this Matterhorn picture.